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Pat   Listen
noun
Pat  n.  
1.
A light, quik blow or stroke with the fingers or hand; a tap.
2.
A small mass, as of butter, shaped by pats. "It looked like a tessellated work of pats of butter."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Pat" Quotes from Famous Books



... rather than sit like a statue so still, When the rain made her mansion a pound, Up and down would she go like the sails of a mill, And pat every stair, like a wood-pecker's bill, From the tiles of the roof to ...
— Translations of German Poetry in American Magazines 1741-1810 • Edward Ziegler Davis

... have done it better," he said, "shweepin' by me without a 'By your l'ave, Pat'; and the master, callin' me 'Murphy' to my face, what he's never done since he left the rig'ment. I wonder what's the matter with ...
— Mary Gray • Katharine Tynan

... at the Good Shepherd's Rest | |because Pat Nicke kept the back door of his saloon | |open on election ...
— News Writing - The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories • M. Lyle Spencer

... effort at optimism. "The kind who discriminate and say: 'I'm not sure if it's Botticelli or Cellini I mean, but one of that school, at any rate.' And the worst of all are the ones who know—up to a certain point: have the schools, and the dates and the jargon pat, and yet wouldn't know a Phidias if it stood where they ...
— Tales Of Men And Ghosts • Edith Wharton

... all they do very unlike their usual mode of action. The sick man, who is not so sick but what he can ponder on the matter, feels himself to be like a baby, whom he has seen the nurse to take from its cradle, pat on the back, feed, and then return to its little couch, all without undue violence or tyranny, but still with a certain consciousness of omnipotence as far as that child was concerned. The vitality of the man is gone from ...
— Miss Mackenzie • Anthony Trollope

... me go!" he howled, while the witch only laughed hideously at the two and, drawing them closer to her, she began to pat their heads and ...
— Operas Every Child Should Know - Descriptions of the Text and Music of Some of the Most Famous Masterpieces • Mary Schell Hoke Bacon

... with cynical malice. "Quite a hero, ain't he? If you want to know, I stand pat. Mr. Fraser from Texas don't draw the wool over my eyes none. Right now I serve notice to that effect. Meantime, since I don't aim to join the happy circle of his admirers, I ...
— A Texas Ranger • William MacLeod Raine

... pat in tune with those thoughts that would not be suppressed. Before she knew what she was doing—before she had time to reflect that probably his words were merely an idle civility or the playful suggestion of an ...
— Half a Hero - A Novel • Anthony Hope

... it, dear, and may be we can find out where he is," said Mrs. Moss, leaning forward to pat the shiny dark head that was suddenly ...
— Under the Lilacs • Louisa May Alcott

... the discussion, a stockman named Pat Kelly, who was incidentally the Democratic boss of Michigan, rose in his seat. "Can any gentleman inform me," he inquired, "why the business of this meeting should be held up by the talk of a broken-down ...
— Roosevelt in the Bad Lands • Hermann Hagedorn

... had learned that the beat way to treat a joke of this kind is always to humor it, instead of being offended. For a joke is often like a little barking dog—perfectly harmless, if you pass serenely by without noticing it, or if you just say, "Poor fellow! brave dog!" and pat its neck; but which, if you get angry and raise your stick, will worry you all the more for your trouble, and perhaps ...
— The Drummer Boy • John Trowbridge

... him over with a satisfactory pat on the nose and turned to look at the white-faced cow that had so terrified Mrs. Atterson. She wasn't a bad looking beast, either, and would freshen shortly. Her calf would be worth from twelve to fifteen dollars if Mrs. Atterson did not wish to ...
— Hiram The Young Farmer • Burbank L. Todd

... whan jowes the Judgment bell, Wi' His ain Hand, His Leevin' Sel', Sall ryve the guid (as Prophets tell) Frae them that had it; And in the reamin' pat o' Hell, ...
— Underwoods • Robert Louis Stevenson

... was a fertile river-bottom, bricks were the only building material, and clay was therefore a familiar substance. Nothing was more natural than that the Babylonian should scratch his record or message on a little pat of clay, which he could afterwards bake and render permanent. Some day all other books in the world will have crumbled into dust, their records being saved only when reproduced; but at that remote time ...
— The Booklover and His Books • Harry Lyman Koopman

... A sharp pat on the stone window frame beside him, after the bullet had snipped off the tip of his left ear, caused Mr. Marquand to draw back suddenly. He stalked about the floor, holding a handkerchief to the wounded ear, "talking in dashes and ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in New Mexico • Frank Gee Patchin

... came to my hand while we were deep in some such talk; and it will be seen how pat it fell to the occasion. James professed to be in some concern upon his daughter's health, which I believe was never better; abounded in kind expressions to myself; and finally proposed that I should ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 11 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... Motherland, too; A strain of the fur-trapper wary, A blend of the old and the new; A bit of the pioneer splendor That opened the wilderness' flats, A touch of the home-lover, tender, You'll find in the boys they call Pat's. ...
— A Heap o' Livin' • Edgar A. Guest

... heard her give a bound, then the sound of a heavy lid falling and then, after a minute or two of complete silence, the soft pat-pat of her slippered feet ...
— The Mayor's Wife • Anna Katharine Green

... ballots. So, although he should like to see the women have their rights, he should have to refuse Mrs. Brown's vote. Here an Irishman called out, "It would be more sensible to let an intelligent white woman vote than an ignorant nigger." Cries of "Good for you, Pat! good for you, Pat!" indicated the impression that had been made. My daughter now went up and offered her vote, ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various

... We have given him the suite reserved for foreign princes. He has a remarkably good presence, a nice face, charming manners, and a good accent. I never saw a nicer prince in all my life. I am positively in love with him, and my heart goes pit-a-pat when I think that he is at this moment on his way to have his head chopped off, just like a silly sheep; such a handsome prince, such a charming prince, such ...
— Turandot, Princess of China - A Chinoiserie in Three Acts • Karl Gustav Vollmoeller

... me and stopped. "Right you are," he said, with a struggle after cheerfulness. His back was still to me. He had degrading cowardice in his very appearance. Somehow I was moved to pat him on the shoulder. ...
— Hurricane Island • H. B. Marriott Watson

... answer that question, but instead wagged his tail more and more joyfully and drew near to the group so ingratiatingly that Nell at once ceased to fear him and began to pat ...
— In Desert and Wilderness • Henryk Sienkiewicz

... quite right, Pat," replied Captain Jack. "You see, I'm afraid I lost my temper a bit, which is horribly bad form I know, and—well, I wanted to fight rather than play, and of course one couldn't fight on the tennis court in the presence of a lot of ...
— To Him That Hath - A Novel Of The West Of Today • Ralph Connor

... stewed apples, well mashed, melt a pound of butter, beat ten eggs with two pounds of sugar, and mix all together with a glass of brandy and wine; pat in nutmeg to your taste, and bake in ...
— Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers • Elizabeth E. Lea

... chance opinion takes its rise, And into reputation multiplies. This prologue finds pat applications In men of all this world's vocations; For fashion, prejudice, and party strife, Conspire to crowd poor justice out of life. What can you do to counteract This reckless, rushing cataract? 'Twill have its course for good or bad, As it, ...
— The Fables of La Fontaine - A New Edition, With Notes • Jean de La Fontaine

... little mulatto girl named Agnes. Dumps had so many favorites that it was hard for her to decide; but finally she selected Frances, a lively little darky, who could dance and pat and sing and shout, and ...
— Diddie, Dumps, and Tot • Louise-Clarke Pyrnelle

... easy minds, to say nothing of good appetites, and thoroughly enjoyed the meal,—a most sumptuous one, considering the place and the circumstances of its preparation,— Giaccomo condescending so far to relax the sternness of his demeanour to Francois as to pat that individual approvingly on the shoulder, and to assure him that such cookery went far to atone for his extraordinary indiscretion of the ...
— Under the Meteor Flag - Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War • Harry Collingwood

... laughed and sang and thought and felt in French—the French of two hundred years ago, the language of Samuel de Champlain and the Sieur de Monts, touched with a strong woodland flavour. In short, my guide, philosopher, and friend, Pat, did not have a drop of Irish in him, unless, perhaps, it was a certain—well, you shall judge for yourself, when you have heard this story of his virtue, and ...
— The Ruling Passion • Henry van Dyke

... to smile down at him—no indeed, that was the last thing in the world he wanted—yet. He wished sometimes, just for a moment, that there weren't any mothers to come, since the one could never come to him again. But they did come and smile at him, and pat his head—these mothers of the other boys—came drawn by the hungry longing in his eyes—and he set his teeth and clinched his hands under the bedclothes, and when they went away gulped down the great lump that always jumped into his throat, ...
— The Torch Bearer - A Camp Fire Girls' Story • I. T. Thurston

... no change, and as it appeared, perceived none in her. Time passed on however, and before he had become well aware that the little fairy whose tiny form must needs so short a while since clamber on his knee to stroke and pat his cheek, had now shot up into a tall girl, who could take his arm in a long walk, or canter beside him all the morning on her well trained pony, there came a change over the course of his quiet household little startling. Visitors began to throng the hall; ...
— Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, March 1844 - Volume 23, Number 3 • Various

... jist i' my heid, my lord," he said, without any preamble, "sic a kin' o' a h'avenly Jacobin as this same Jacobus was! He's sic a leveller as was feow afore 'im, I doobt, wi' his gowd ringt man, an' his cloot cled brither! He pat me in twa min's, my lord, whan I got up, whether I wad touch my bonnet to yer lordship ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald

... direction—why then He'd his coppers retain, and trudge onward again. The shillalegh, not thirsty, went wrong way for Mick, Who again and again tried the Test of the Stick, Till, worn out with refusing, the sprig tumbled right: "Bring a pint!" sang out Pat, which he drank with delight; And smacking his lips as he finished his beer, Cried—"Success, Mick, me ...
— The Death of Saul and other Eisteddfod Prize Poems and Miscellaneous Verses • J. C. Manning

... lay off beds four feet wide, so that the water from rains may run or drain off. For every bed four feet wide and twelve yards long, sow one chalk pipe bowl full of seed, after being mixed with ashes; tread with the feet or pat it over with weeding hoes, that it may be close and smooth; cover it with dog-wood, maple, or any fine brush, to the depth of twenty or twenty-four inches, to protect the young plants from cold or a drouth. After the plants have commenced coming up, re-sow the patches with half the ...
— Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings

... should have been, and I've reason for believing that he has been putting up a mortgage. Interest's heavy. There's another matter. I wonder if you've heard that he's getting rid of two of Harry's hands? I mean Pat and Tom Moran." ...
— Hawtrey's Deputy • Harold Bindloss

... all down pat," chuckled the other, satisfied that what Frank said must be exactly so; for he did not make a practice ...
— The Outdoor Chums at Cabin Point - or The Golden Cup Mystery • Quincy Allen

... soothin' josh and a pat on the shoulder, I slips through into the private office, where Mr. Robert sits puffin' a cigarette placid in front of a heaped-up desk. When ...
— Wilt Thou Torchy • Sewell Ford

... was mighty good to me while I was backin' it; he used to deal out fussy little fixin's 'at kept the appetite an' the fever both down, an' when they wasn't no one around he used to pat out my pillers an' oncet he smoothed back my hair. He cut out his cussin' too, an' he used to line up ...
— Happy Hawkins • Robert Alexander Wason

... he said, and Elsie, wondering why she had been summoned from the saloon, ran up the bridge companion. Her face was aglow with excitement, her heart going pit-a-pat. She hoped that Courtenay meant to keep her near him during the fight; she almost doubted Christobal's statement that the captain had given specific orders that she was to remain in the saloon. It was one thing that she should ...
— The Captain of the Kansas • Louis Tracy

... wad a bine ill leart gin I had na latten yu ken tis, be kaptin Rogirs skep dat geangs te Innernes, per cunnan I dinna ket sika anither apertunti dis towmen agen. De skep dat I kam in was a lang tym o de see cumin oure heir, but plissis pi Got for a'ting wi a kepit our heels unco weel, pat Shonie Magwillivray dat hat ay sair heet. Dere was saxty o's a'kame inte te quintry hel a lit an lim an nane o's a'dyit pat Shonie Magwillivray an an otter Ross lad dat kam oure wi's an mai pi dem twa wad a dyit gintey hed bitten at hame. Pi mi fait I kanna ...
— An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America • J. P. MacLean

... of the World War," official Explain-alls, and the "Personal Impressions" of war correspondents and of Privates X, Y, and Z. Several times during Anthony's visit his grandfather's secretary, Edward Shuttleworth, the one-time "Accomplished Gin-physician" of "Pat's Place" in Hoboken, now shod with righteous indignation, would appear with an extra. The old man attacked each paper with untiring fury, tearing out those columns which appeared to him of sufficient pregnancy for preservation and ...
— The Beautiful and Damned • F. Scott Fitzgerald

... table, when acting as toastmaster, to me are only a shade removed from the marvelous. Either he has an uncanny second-sight, or that vaunted deafness is all a big pretense, for I have heard him "pull stuff" on a preceding speaker so pat that no one else could be made to believe what I knew ...
— The Dead Men's Song - Being the Story of a Poem and a Reminiscent Sketch of its - Author Young Ewing Allison • Champion Ingraham Hitchcock

... face, while the other loomed up from underneath, as the reflection of a face does from under the surface of water. Lucy soon wearied of her mother and walked over to my side. I put her on my lap. She would not let me pat her, but she did not mind sitting ...
— The Rise of David Levinsky • Abraham Cahan

... was speaking, Harry had taken his seat next to a pretty dark-eyed young girl, giving her a kiss on the cheek and at the same time a pat on the back, a familiarity to which his sister Julia was well accustomed from her sailor brother, who entertained the greatest admiration and affection ...
— Won from the Waves • W.H.G. Kingston

... Murray, reaching forward to pat the man upon the shoulder; but the poor fellow's action told its own tale. He started violently, shrinking right away with a look of dread in his eyes. "There, don't do that," Murray continued, "I'm not going to hurt you;" and following the man he patted his shoulder ...
— Hunting the Skipper - The Cruise of the "Seafowl" Sloop • George Manville Fenn

... That hedge was like a drift of odoriferous snow the hawthorn bloom, and primroses sparkled on its bank like topazes. The birds chirruped, the sky smiled, the sun burned perfumes; and there sat my lord and his fellow-maniacs, snick-snack—pit-pat—cutting, dealing, playing, revoking, scoring, and exchanging I. O. U. 's not worth ...
— The Woman-Hater • Charles Reade

... that perpetrated by one of our contributors, who, having been requested to bring us "something pat," walked into our office a day or two after with a couple of ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 1, Saturday, April 2, 1870 • Various

... draw on; bring in its train, give an impulse &c. n.; to; inspire; put up to, prompt, call up; attract, beckon. stimulate &c. (excite) 824; spirit up, inspirit; rouse, arouse; animate, incite, foment, provoke, instigate, set on, actuate;.act upon, work upon, operate upon; encourage; pat on the back, pat on the shoulder, clap on the back, clap on the shoulder. influence, weigh with, bias, sway, incline, dispose, predispose, turn the scale, inoculate; lead by the nose; have influence with, have influence over, have influence upon, exercise influence with, exercise influence ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... this begins to grow upon your once blank canvas, and some lucky pat matches the exact tone of blue-gray haze or shimmer of leaf, or some accidental blending of color delights you with its truth, a tingling goes down your backbone, and a rush surges through your veins that stirs you as nothing else in your whole life will ever do. The reaction ...
— Outdoor Sketching - Four Talks Given before the Art Institute of Chicago; The Scammon Lectures, 1914 • Francis Hopkinson Smith

... to me that the Declaration of Independence has put it pat when it defines the principal object for which we strive as "LIFE, LIBERTY, AND ...
— A Jolly by Josh • "Josh"

... soon faded from view. First came the frozen bed of the river, then a chain of low-lying hills, then broad stretches of tundra again, with, here and there, a narrow willow-lined stream twisting in and out between snow-banks. The steady pat-pat of his "mucklucks" (skin boots) carried him far that day, but brought him no sight of the ...
— Panther Eye • Roy J. Snell

... Suddenly he disappeared, and as I jerked my horse back on his haunches, Paddy sung out: "Och! I've found one, sorr!" and sure enough he had gone in, head and heels, in one of the "pits." He scrambled out and cautiously led my horse around the hole, but we had hardly gone a rod further before Pat went out again, like a candle, with "Be jabers, I've found another." But he took his mud baths good-humoredly, and led us without further accident to the captain. From him I got the reports from the ...
— Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V2 • Jacob Dolson Cox

... some food. She looked at the boy with much affection. "Now, fall to, and don't despise our poor table, my son," she said, and gave his arm a friendly pat. Pelle fell to with a good appetite. Lasse hung half out of the ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo

... that government has no business to undertake an adventure, to make experiments. They think that safety lies in repetition, that if you do nothing, nothing will be done to you. It's a mistake due to poverty of imagination and inability to learn from experience. Even the timidest soul dare not "stand pat." The indictment against mere routine in government is a ...
— A Preface to Politics • Walter Lippmann

... dinners of Paris are so infinitely to be preferred to those, say, of certain places in New Orleans, or that the coppery-tasting oysters of Havre are to be compared with those of our own Baltimore. There is no more to be said, probably, for the woodcock pats of old Montreuil, or the rillettes of Tours, or the little pots of custard one gets at the foreign Montpelier, or the vol-au-vent, which is the pride and boast of the cities of Provence, than there is for grandmother's cookies such as have put Camden, Maine, ...
— Twenty-four Little French Dinners and How to Cook and Serve Them • Cora Moore

... knew whether he were on his head or on his heels. The master-player would not let him eat at all after once breaking his fast, for fear it might affect his voice, and had him say his lines a hundred times until he had them pat. Then he was off, directing here, there, and everywhere, until the court was cleared of all that had no business there, and the last surreptitious small boy had been duly projected from the gates ...
— Master Skylark • John Bennett

... one a fright, were his eyes not so handsome and his smile so sweet," said one lovely ardent hoyden. "Lord! just to watch him standing near with that noble grave look on his face, and not giving one a thought, makes one's heart go pit-a-pat. A man hath no right to be such a beauty—and to be so, and to be a Duke's son, too, is a burning shame. 'Tis wicked that one man should have so much to give ...
— His Grace of Osmonde • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... Turnour condescended to get out of the car to do honour to the bridge with its two Corinthian arches of perfect grace and beauty; but she had nothing to say to the poor little, tired-looking lions sitting on top, which I longed to climb up and pat. ...
— The Motor Maid • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson

... hersel' i' the red scarlet. Her marys i' dainty green, And they pat girdles about their middles Woud ...
— Ballads of Romance and Chivalry - Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - First Series • Frank Sidgwick

... portions of the land:—"We regret to state that, on the night of Thursday (last week), a barbarous murder was committed at a village near Woodford, in this county. The unfortunate object of the assassin's vengeance was a man named Pat Hill. Two persons came into his house, and brought him out of his bed to a place about forty yards distant, and there inflicted no less than forty-two bayonet wounds on his person, besides a fracture of the skull. His wife, hearing his screams, went to his assistance, and, having begged ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... the Ku Klux Klan organization. That was the pat-rollers, then they called them the Night Riders, and at one time the Regulators. The 'Ole Dragon', his name was Simons, he had control of it, and that continued on for 50 year till after the war when Garfield was ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: The Ohio Narratives • Works Projects Administration

... affectionately by the hand—for he bore no malice, and the Lenten ditty he quite forgave as being no worse in modern parlance than an unhappy 'fluke'—was about to pull him into the parlour, where there was ensconced, he told him, 'a noble friend of his.' This was 'Pat Mahony, from beyond Killarney, just arrived—a man of parts and conversation, and ...
— The House by the Church-Yard • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... friendly and companionable way as he crossed the yard, Tyke following a little more sedately than before. Kit's first morning job was to fodder the cattle. He went to the hay-mow and carried a great armful of fodder, filling the manger before the bullocks, and giving each a friendly pat as he went by. Great Jock, the bull in the pen by himself in the corner, pushed a moist nose over the bars, and dribbled upon Kit with slobbering affection. Kit put down his head and pretended to run ...
— Bog-Myrtle and Peat - Tales Chiefly Of Galloway Gathered From The Years 1889 To 1895 • S.R. Crockett

... my last, is only a sketch;—circumstances allowed no more. Can Grande, the great dog, has been got up out of the pit, where he worried the stewardess and snapped at the friend who tried to pat him on the head. Everybody asks where he is. Don't you see that heap of shawls yonder, lying in the sun, and heated up to about 212 degrees Fahrenheit? That slouched hat on top marks the spot where his head should lie,—by treading cautiously in the opposite direction you may ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 19, May, 1859 • Various

... experiments in this trust-work, done for her father, to hold things as they were for him. Brick loaves, family loaves, rolls, brown bread, crackers, cookies, these had to be made as the journeymen knew how; as bakers' men had made them ever since and before Mother Goose wrote the dear old pat-a-cake rhyme. ...
— The Other Girls • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney

... Pat felt the Frenchman's head. "Shure, I never knew a man come to life with a hole like this in his skull," he remarked, "but to make shure in case of accidents, we'll heave him overboard;" and without more ado ...
— The Missing Ship - The Log of the "Ouzel" Galley • W. H. G. Kingston

... our affairs—putting in his oar, so to speak—with some pat word or sentence. The conversation, the other evening, had turned on the subject of watches, when one of the gentlemen present, the manager of a large watch-making establishment, told us a rather interesting fact. The component parts of a watch are produced by different ...
— Ponkapog Papers • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... pride of some West End tailor. His patent-leather boots were dandiacally diminutive; his glove fitted like that of a lady who lives but to be bien gantee. The feathery hair, which at Whitelaw he was wont to pat and smooth, still had its golden shimmer, and on his face ...
— Born in Exile • George Gissing

... monkeys. All his life he had felt a desire to pat and fondle those shivering creatures which he had been accustomed to see on barrel-organs in his native land, and the same strong impulse came ...
— Black Ivory • R.M. Ballantyne

... I wouldn't have undertaken to reason with him for all the gold of the Credit Mobilier. There is another creamy idiot, trying his "level best" to smash things here. Look at him! JULES VALLES! a patriot by name and a Pat-rioter by nature, with enough hair on his head to stuff a gabion, and not sense enough beneath it to accommodate a well-informed parrot. These fellows call FAVRE a "milk-sop," and the trouble of it is that FAYRE occasionally gives them reason for doing so. Strolling through ...
— Punchinello, Vol. II., No. 35, November 26, 1870 • Various

... Scamonea, from Syria, and Persia. Bdellium, from Arabia felix, and Mecca. Cardamomum small, from Barcelona. Cardamomum great, from Bengala. Tamarinda, from Balsara. Aloe Secutrina, from Secutra. Aloe Epatica, from Pat. Safran, from Balsara, and Persia. Lignum de China, from China. Rhaponticum, from Persia, and Pugia. Thus, from Secutra. Turpith, from Diu, and Cambaia. Nuts of India, from Goa, and other places of ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, Volume 9 - Asia, Part 2 • Richard Hakluyt

... not respond. "I don't know why you're tryin' to do this thing," went on the other, "nor who's backing you. But from what I can make out, you've got the goods, and you've got them on most everybody in the town. You've got Slattery, and you've got Pat McCullagh, and you've got the machine. You've got Wygant and Hickman—you've even got something on ...
— Samuel the Seeker • Upton Sinclair

... said, but always ready to prove Sheila right; and Lavender himself, as unlike a married man as ever, talking impatiently, impetuously and wildly, except at such times as he said something to his young wife, and then some brief smile and look or some pat on the hand said more than words. But where, Sheila may have thought, was the one wanting to complete the group? Has he gone down to Borvabost to see about the cargoes of fish to be sent off in the morning? Perhaps he is ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 28. July, 1873. • Various

... said to him, "you must not give way"; and I made an effort to release one of my hands, meaning to pat him ...
— Once a Week • Alan Alexander Milne

... Bestowing a playful pat upon Pierrette's cheek, she turned and tripped away, followed by her companion. Hand-in-hand, according to our custom, we returned home, in silence, but ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 29, May 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... thereabout have an ugly trick of rolling down upon the track when they get tired of lying still. So the company employ sentinels who traverse the dangerous territory before the morning train goes through. One of these,—Pat K. by name,—while on his beat, met Dennis, whose hand he had last shaken on the 'Green Isle.' After mutual inquiries and congratulations, says Dennis, 'What are you doin' these days, Pat?' 'Oh, I'm consarned in this railroad company. I go up the road ...
— Continental Monthly - Volume 1 - Issue 3 • Various

... I took it for granted that you had it all pat. You see, I don't know the first thing about mountaineering myself. Can't we get back the same ...
— On Land And Sea At The Dardanelles • Thomas Charles Bridges

... feel a sort of small personal satisfaction in it. Your shirts fit you better. You love the slight strain upon the buttonholes. You admire the pleasant plunking sound suggestive of ripe watermelons when you pat yourself. Then a day comes when the persuasive odor of mothballs fills the autumnal air and everybody at the barber shop is having the back of his neck shaved also, thus betokening awakened social activities, and when ...
— Cobb's Anatomy • Irvin S. Cobb

... at Annie Day. Annie raised her eyebrows, looked interrogative, then her face subsided into a satisfied expression. She asked no further questions, but she gave Rosalind an affectionate pat on the shoulder. ...
— A Sweet Girl Graduate • Mrs. L.T. Meade

... buckle down to work and make the old place go? Ready to pat the old ladies on the shoulder and squeeze the young ...
— Where There's A Will • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... of safety and were sitting on their haunches, with ears cocked forward, watching us in our precarious predicament. They seemed to rejoice at our deliverance, and as I went among them and untangled their traces I could not forbear giving each one an affectionate pat on the head. ...
— A Negro Explorer at the North Pole • Matthew A. Henson

... Mignon just as she was thinking of her traps. She has all sorts of queer feelings, shivers, wants to be sick, and Mignon takes her back to her place and promises to look after her affairs. Isn't it odd, eh? Doesn't it all happen pat? But this is the best part of the story: Rose finds out about Nana's illness and gets indignant at the idea of her being alone in furnished apartments. So she rushes off, crying, to look after ...
— Nana, The Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille • Emile Zola

... indignation and resentment. Be that as it may, no trace of displeasure was visible upon her face or in her voice or manner, when, a few minutes afterwards, she stood by the side of the unsuspicious Tira, in the back veranda of the house, holding in her hand a plate containing a pat of butter she had just borrowed from the Doctor's housekeeper, while the latter, peeping through the curtain of vine-leaves, gazed at as pretty a spectacle as just then could have been seen anywhere in Belfield. On the grassplot, in the shade of a great cherry-tree, Laura and Helen ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various

... Hall, and there he and I parted, and I to my Lord Sandwich's, where coming and bolting into the dining-room, I there found Captain Ferrers going to christen a child of his born yesterday, and I come just pat to be a godfather, along with my Lord Hinchingbrooke, and Madam Pierce, my Valentine, which for that reason I was pretty well contented with, though a little vexed to see myself so beset with people to spend me money, as she of a Valentine ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... Marjorie's state. But the dear soul, comforting as always, said nothing of the sort. She said very little of any sort, indeed; she merely laid off the bonnet and cloak she had come in, and went straight at her work of looking after Marjorie. Only on her way she stopped to give Francis a comforting pat on ...
— I've Married Marjorie • Margaret Widdemer

... poor kind of a creature he must be, when he allows himself to be killed with what was no more than a love pat!' ...
— Mouser Cats' Story • Amy Prentice

... quietly, the ugly little pinto, Whiskers—the marks of the pinto long since gone before the half breed's doctoring hand—was cantering at his side. Without a break in his stride Blue Pete leaped to the bare back, one hand dropping to pat the arched neck. ...
— The Return of Blue Pete • Luke Allan

... to him kindly, and she stooped to pat the dog's glossy head. Then she bade Gaston set wine for them, and when it was fetched the three of them drank in ...
— St. Martin's Summer • Rafael Sabatini

... the wagon wheel, and, with a final rub and pat and admonition, left the lamb, to start the herd feeding toward their bed-ground ...
— The Fighting Shepherdess • Caroline Lockhart

... it, pat, now he is praying: And now I'll do't:—And so he goes to heaven: And so am I revenged? That would ...
— Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher • S. T. Coleridge

... Pat went to his mistress: "My lady, your mare In harness, goes well as a dray-horse, I swear: I tried, as you're thinking to sell her, or let her, For coming on thus, she'll go ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Issue 267, August 4, 1827 • Various

... Ray, as he leaned for a moment against the open door of the dairy in passing out. Rotha was there singing, while in a snow-white apron, and with arms bare above the elbows, she weighed the butter of the last churning into pats, and marked each pat with a rude old mark. The girl dropped her head and blushed as Willy spoke. Of late she had grown unable to look the young man in the face. Willy did not speak again. His face colored, and he went away. Rotha's manner towards Ralph was different. ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine

... a final pat, and laughed noisily. "No, it'll set me firmer on the road to promotion than what I've ever been. When I get back here again, I shall be like the monkey—best part up the palm-tree, and nothing dangerous between him ...
— The Devil's Garden • W. B. Maxwell

... for splitting out shingles), and a heavy mallet in the other. He really looked as if he had made up his mind to go to work, and David could not imagine what had happened to put such an idea into his head. He stopped on the way to speak to the pointer and give him a friendly pat, and that was another thing that surprised his brother. Dan would have acted more like himself if he had given ...
— The Boy Trapper • Harry Castlemon

... use of trying to get along with him?" he demanded of Tom. "He has it in for me, and even if I had every lesson down pat he'd be after me all the time just the same. If it wasn't for—for the team ...
— Left End Edwards • Ralph Henry Barbour

... gamest little thoroughbred ever?" he chuckled to himself. "Stands the acid every crack. Think of her standing pat so game—just like she did for me that night out at the ranch. She's the ...
— Crooked Trails and Straight • William MacLeod Raine

... ran, the Gentile officer had replied that he would cross the Jordan if hell yawned below it; that he had thereupon viciously pulled the ends of a grizzled, gray moustache and proceeded to behave very much as an officer would be expected to behave who was commonly known as "old Pat Connor." ...
— The Lions of the Lord - A Tale of the Old West • Harry Leon Wilson

... another. The table was covered with a snow-white cloth. By her side was a loaf called by bakers and housekeepers, crusty; the term might apply either to the loaf or the old lady's temper. A little piece of cheese stood on a clean plate, and a crab on another, a little pat of butter on a third, and this, with a jug of water, formed the preparation for the evening meal of the aunt and niece. Emilie went up to her aunt, gaily, with her bunch of primroses in her hand, and addressing ...
— Emilie the Peacemaker • Mrs. Thomas Geldart

... one. 'It's her chivalry,' said another; 'she's the sort of woman who could never be very violently interested by a man of her own size. She would need one she could look up to, or else one she could protect and pat on the head.' '"God be thanked, the meanest of His creatures boasts two soul-sides, one to face the world with, one to show a woman when he loves her,"' quoted a third. 'Perhaps Coco'—we had nicknamed him Coco—'has luminous qualities that we don't dream ...
— Grey Roses • Henry Harland

... received one minute a favour, at another a threat, now a pat on the face, and now a kick, now a kind word, now a cruel one, reflected how mutable court fortune is, and would fain have been without the acquaintance of the King. But knowing that to reply to great men is a folly, and like plucking a lion by the ...
— Stories from Pentamerone • Giambattista Basile

... large, cautious and shrewd personage who will, later on, become arch-chancellor of the Empire and famous for his epicurean inventions and other peculiar tastes revived from antiquity. Scarcely seated, he orders an ample pat-au-feu to be placed on the chimney hearth and, on the table, "fine wine and fine white bread; three articles," says a guest, "not to be found elsewhere in all Paris." Between twelve and two o'clock, his colleagues enter the room in ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... at the railway station he was obliged to pass the Palace Hotel before he could come upon the company of low clapboard houses which composed Fort Romper, and it was not to be thought that any traveller could pass the Palace Hotel without looking at it. Pat Scully, the proprietor, had proved himself a master of strategy when he chose his paints. It is true that on clear days, when the great trans-continental expresses, long lines of swaying Pullmans, swept through Fort Romper, passengers ...
— The Monster and Other Stories - The Monster; The Blue Hotel; His New Mittens • Stephen Crane

... was saying, "and that's a kind of rheumatism that's dreadful. And he thinks about the rent not being paid, and Bridget says that makes the inf'ammation worse. And Pat could get a place in a store if ...
— Little Lord Fauntleroy • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... Rinaldo would have suited me so much better, but you must put in that low, vulgar, most hateful of all names—Patrick! A Patrick in our own house, for our only child! By and bye, he will be going by the name of Pat. My child—the son of a St. Leger—baptized by a Catholic priest and called Pat, just like the dozen other infant nobodies he had baptized the same day, no doubt. Nothing to distinguish him from the vulgar herd—a paddy ...
— Hubert's Wife - A Story for You • Minnie Mary Lee

... we haven't forgotten the powder and shot!" exclaimed Desmond, as they were committing the things to the charge of Tim Nolan, who was to accompany them, that he might stow them away in the boat. Pat Casey, the other Irishman who had been saved from the savages, with Jerry Bird, formed the crew of the boat. Bird and Nolan were tried, steady men. Casey, who was accustomed to a savage life, might be useful in searching for ...
— The Three Admirals • W.H.G. Kingston

... ANDREW FREEPORT who sat between us; and as we were both observing him, we saw the Knight shake his Head, and heard him say to himself, A foolish Woman! I cant believe it. Sir ANDREW gave him a gentle Pat upon the Shoulder, and offered to lay him a Bottle of Wine that he was thinking of the Widow. My old Friend started, and recovering out of his brown Study, told Sir ANDREW that once in his Life he had been in the right. In short, after some little Hesitation, Sir ROGER ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... us, as if we were his equals; but whenever he spoke to us he used to ask questions, and in order to avoid displeasing him, it was necessary to answer him without showing too much embarrassment. Sometimes he gave us a pat on the cheek, or pinched our ears; these were favors not accorded every one, and we could judge of his good humor by the way they hurt us.... Often he treated the Empress in the same way, with little pats preferably on the shoulders; it was no use her saying: 'Come, stop, Bonaparte!' he went on ...
— The Court of the Empress Josephine • Imbert de Saint-Amand

... you Easterners," came at last. "You come out here an' take one look at these here hills an' think you can beat Ole Lady Nature when she's sittin' pat with a royal flush. But go on—I ain't tryin' t' stop you. 'Twouldn't be nothin' but a waste o' breath. You've got this here conquerin' spirit in your blood—won't be satisfied till you get it out. You're all th' same—I 've seen fellows with flivvers loaded ...
— The White Desert • Courtney Ryley Cooper

... said, giving the covers a final pat. "Sleep tight and don't get up for breakfast. I want to bring ...
— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst

... custards in cups, 1 cold sausage, 2 pieces of cold toast, 1 piece of cheese, 2 lemon cheese-cakes, 1 small jam tart (there was only one left), Butter, 1 pat. ...
— The Magic City • Edith Nesbit

... that," said Mrs. Crowley, "and I earned every bit of it doing washing, for Pat, bless his sowl, was out ...
— Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks - A Picture of New England Home Life • Charles Felton Pidgin

... Another afternoon I went down to the Kursaal Hotel for tea. The stuffy sitting-room there is always filled with knickerbockered, leather-coated ladies and with officers in dark blue uniform, who talk loudly and pat the barmaid's cheeks. She seems to expect it; it is almost etiquette. A cup of bad tea, some German trophies examined and discussed, and then I came away with a "British" longing for skirts for my ladies, and for something ...
— My War Experiences in Two Continents • Sarah Macnaughtan

... 1721; and Mabillon has set forth another performance by the same writer in elegiac verse (Vet. Analect. pp. 369-76., Paris, 1723). In the latter case the author's name is not given, and accordingly he is entered merely as "Poeta vetus" in Mr. Dowling's Notitia Scriptorum SS. Pat., sc. p. 279., Oxon., 1839. Your correspondent may compare with Andreae's extract these lines, and those which follow them, ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 45, Saturday, September 7, 1850 • Various

... she loved by her side to smile on and encourage her. Then they would scamper along; the dog with his thin body almost touching the ground, racing and frightening the rabbits, which shot across the road swift as bullets. Out of breath by the violent ride, Micheline would stop, and pat the neck of her lovely chestnut horse. Slowly the young people would return to the Rue Saint-Dominique, and, on arriving in the courtyard, there was such a pawing of feet as brought the clerks to the windows, hiding behind the curtains. Tired with healthy exercise, Micheline would ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... "salt; kommit, kommit," and filling his hand with salt, the animal came near, and devoured it greedily, and allowed the Norwegian to pat her ...
— A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden - 2nd edition • W. A. Ross

... Pat Gregg was leaving the saloon; he was on his horse, but he sat the saddle slanting, and his head was turned to give the farewell word to several figures who bulged through the door of the saloon. For that reason, as well as because of the fumes in his brain, he did not ...
— Way of the Lawless • Max Brand

... wrinkle it was in, except the wrinkles in the palm of that spalpeen's fist! That's where it was; and I can tell yez all who putt it there. It was this very chap who is so pit-a-pat at explainin' it. Yez needn't deny it, Bill Bowler. I saw somethin' passin' betwixt yerself and Frenchy,—jest before it come his turn to dhraw. I saw yer flippers touchin' van another, an' somethin' slippin' ...
— The Ocean Waifs - A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea • Mayne Reid

... mentioned a singular practice of the fishermen of the present day in Sicily, to pat the thunny while he is in the net, as you pat a horse or dog: They say it makes him docile. This done, they put their legs across his back, and ride him round the net room, an experiment few would practise on the dolphin's back, at least in these days; yet Aulus Gellius relates that there was a dolphin who used to delight in carrying ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII. - June, 1843.,Vol. LIII. • Various

... accomplishments. He reveals the man by the most skilful indirection, and by leaving his guard down, often allows the reader to score a point. And of all devices of writing folk, none is finer than to please the reader by allowing him to pat ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard

... Charles sent away a glass and a plate, frowning at the girl who waited; there must have been a speck or a flaw in them. The viands were as pretty as the dishes, the lamb chops were fragile; the bread was delicious, but cut in transparent slices, and the butter pat was nearly stamped through with its bouquet of flowers. This was all the feast except sponge cake, which felt like muslin in the fingers; I could have squeezed the whole of it into my mouth. Still hungry, I observed that Cousin Charles and Alice had finished; ...
— The Morgesons • Elizabeth Stoddard

... be? Were they so short of beef at the post and a beef issue coming off, and then attempt to bluff him with their army rulings? He saw through it all, and now he would stand pat, and take nobody's bluff. ...
— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor

... and which gives atoms the occasion to meet and encounter. Thus they turn and wind them at pleasure, according as they fancy best for their purpose. But upon what authority do they suppose this declination of atoms, which comes so pat to bear up their system? If motion in a straight line be essential to bodies, nothing can bend, nor consequently join them, in all eternity; the clinamen destroys the very essence of matter, and those philosophers contradict themselves without blushing. If, on ...
— The Existence of God • Francois de Salignac de La Mothe- Fenelon

... into an Irishman, in our collections of facetiae, who applied to a farmer for work. "I'll have nothing to do with you," said the farmer, "for the last five Irishmen I had all died on my hands." Quoth Pat, "Sure, sir, I can bring you characters from half a dozen gentlemen I've worked for that I never did such a thing." And the jest is thus told in an old translation of Les Contes Facetieux de Sieur Gaulard: ...
— The Book of Noodles - Stories Of Simpletons; Or, Fools And Their Follies • W. A. Clouston

... another worldful of people with the same old likes, dislikes and hatreds. But they are evolving a way of living together, without violence, that may some day form the key to mankind's survival. They are worth looking after. Now get below and study your Disan and read the reports. Get it all pat before ...
— Planet of the Damned • Harry Harrison

... Diamond, giving him several little pat-like blows on the breast and in the ribs. When the Virginian felt that he had Frank cornered he was astonished to see Merriwell slip under his arm and come ...
— Frank Merriwell at Yale • Burt L. Standish

... run by thim faymales. Soon they'll want to run the wurrld, and they'll be votin'. The divil will be to pay in a man's home. They should be taught their places at once. If my wife should git that strong minded sure I'd be packin' her off. Dacent homes are bein' ruined, Pat, and soon there'll be no homes. They meet in clubs to worship the rich, and who will do our mending and cook our meals? It's all wrong, all wrong. The women ...
— The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair - Their Observations and Triumphs • Charles McCellan Stevens (AKA 'Quondam')

... the natural order of things or events, and do not put the cart before the horse: as, "The scribes taught and studied the Law of Moses."—"They can neither return to nor leave their houses."—"He tumbled, head over heels, into the water."—"'Pat, how did you carry that quarter of beef?' 'Why, I thrust it through a stick, and ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... sub-deacon, which was performed by the bishop of Derry, acting as suffragan to the bishop of London. He was then already beneficed, receiving a royal ratification of his estate as parson of Llanvarchell in the diocese of St Asaph on the 20th of March 1391/92 (Cal. Pat. Rolls). In the Hall-book, marked 1393/94, but really for 1394/95, Chicheley's name does not appear. He had then left Oxford and gone up to London to practise as an advocate in the principal ecclesiastical ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various

... is with me. You are an officer of the king's, and if you were caught on that side of the river, it's mighty little trial they'd give you before they run you up to the bough of a tree, or put a bullet into you. With me, it's different. I am just a country boy going to see my cousin Pat Ryan, who works in the stables at the house. Pat would give me ...
— Orange and Green - A Tale of the Boyne and Limerick • G. A. Henty

... and Ems a swarthy "Texican" to whom Spanish was more native than English, both wandering southward in quest of jobs, as stationary and locomotive engineers respectively. They rode first-class, though this did not imply wealth, but merely that Pat Cassidy was conductor. He was a burly, whole-hearted American, supporting an enormous, flaring mustache and, by his own admission, all the "busted" white men traveling between Mexico and Guatemala. While I kept ...
— Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras - Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond • Harry A. Franck

... answers come gay and pat, Scriptor, but your voice betrays you. In spite of you, it saddens all your words. Tell me, have you ever known what it is actually to lose any one who is dear to you? Have you looked ...
— Prose Fancies (Second Series) • Richard Le Gallienne

... a lift of his hat. He held out a hand for the paper; but the little lady turns to my father, and pipes out in a little voice, very clear and sweet, 'Ho! and away for the Islands!' Glad enough was my father to hear the sound of it. 'Ho! and away for the Islands!' he answers, pat; and in two twinks he and the little lady were off in the sky like a puff of smoke, and the crowd left miles below. The next thing he knew he was sittin' on a rock, over yonder in Inniscaw, by the mouth of Piper's Hole, and ...
— Major Vigoureux • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... there can be no difficulty about that; we will give them an hour to get to sleep and then we will set to work. What is that? Ah, Jack, is it you?" as the dog crept in between them with low whines. "Poor old chap, you did your best. I can't pat you now. Roll yourself to the door and look ...
— Condemned as a Nihilist - A Story of Escape from Siberia • George Alfred Henty

... said Mrs. Wiggs. "You can coax a' elephant with a little sugar. The worser Mr. Wiggs used to act, the harder I'd pat him on the back. When he'd git bilin' mad, I'd say: 'Now, Mr. Wiggs, why don't you go right out in the woodshed an' swear off that cuss? I hate to think of it rampantin' round inside of a good-lookin' man like you.' He'd often ...
— Lovey Mary • Alice Hegan Rice

... shall have the best that I can get. Here, Mike, Pat, Peter, where am you all? Take charge of the gentlemen's horses, and give them a feed of grain and a thorough rubbing down. Put supper on the table instantly, and brew us a bowl of punch that will make us sing like nightingales, ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes

... in his perambulator upon the sea-front of his native town. His free-and-easy way has secured him a large circle of acquaintance there. Elderly gentlemen stop and speak to him, which he likes, so long as they do not pat his cheek, a habit far too prevalent among elderly gentlemen. Mothers of other babies are loud in his praises, though in their hearts they are probably comparing him unfavourably with their own offspring. Altogether Edward has ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, January 31, 1917 • Various

... "only chase away the beggars and fawn upon the folks of the house. You will, in return, be paid with all sorts of nice things—bones of fowls and pigeons—to say nothing of many a friendly pat on the head." ...
— The Talking Beasts • Various

... words by Falconer, music by Balfe, was sung by James McArdle, who had a fine tenor voice. Richard Campbell was our principal humorous singer. He used chiefly to give selections from Lover's songs, and one song written for him by John McArdle, "Pat Delany's Christenin'." ...
— The Life Story of an Old Rebel • John Denvir

... behind Dapple, and barked two or three times, just to tell her to move on. And she began to walk slowly and gravely towards Sally. Then Sally put down her little three-legged stool, and sat down by Dapple and milked her. When she had done, she gave her a pat, and said, "Now you may go." Then Dapple began ...
— Adventure of a Kite • Harriet Myrtle

... Mr. PAT. ROBERTSON.—They had heard this evening a toast, which had been received with intense delight, which will be published in every newspaper, and will be hailed with joy by all Europe. He had one toast assigned him ...
— Chronicles of the Canongate • Sir Walter Scott

... to walk away; then she whirled and came back to the table and leaned over it. Her soul of longing was in her eyes—they were filled with tears. "You're going back there," she whispered. "God bless the north country! Give a friendly pat to one of the big trees for me and say you found a girl in New York who ...
— Joan of Arc of the North Woods • Holman Day

... carelessly slung round their murd'rer's back And one by one let loose with joy they fly; This moment they are free—the next they die, The savage hound set on amidst the fray, Seizes and tears their little lives away, While laughter from all sides his valour draws, And even fair ones pat him ...
— Fragments of Two Centuries - Glimpses of Country Life when George III. was King • Alfred Kingston

... sedition. At times he is unconsciously humorous, as in the story of the Duchess of Marlborough's Indian meal distributed for the relief of the poor during the hard time of last winter. A gentleman, who ought to know better, was buying some potheen, or illicit whisky, of the maker. "Now, Pat," said he, "I hope this lot is better than the last." "And, your honour," was the reply, "the last was but the name of whisky. Begorra, it's the Duchess's meal as makes mighty poor potheen." This was said quite seriously and with an injured air. For there is no merriment in Kerry. The ...
— Disturbed Ireland - Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. • Bernard H. Becker

... friend that Kit has not seen yet, and he takes the first opportunity of slipping away and hurrying to the stable, and when Kit goes up to caress and pat him, the pony rubs his nose against his coat and fondles him more lovingly than ever pony fondled man. It is the crowning circumstance of his earnest, heartfelt reception; and Kit fairly puts his arm round Whisker's neck and ...
— Ten Boys from Dickens • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... talking, which you forget. It shapes our thoughts for us;—the waves of conversation roll them as the surf rolls the pebbles on the shore. Let me modify the image a little. I rough out my thoughts in talk as an artist models in clay. Spoken language is so plastic,—you can pat and coax, and spread and shave, and rub out, and fill up, and stick on so easily when you work that soft material, that there is nothing like it for modelling. Out of it come the shapes which you turn into marble ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes

... made that blunder. I was embarrassed; to cover it I started to say we used to combine them like that where I came from, but thought better of it, and stood pat. ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... he's an artist, and you know, artists don't look at things like ordinary folk. He wants to get a moonlight picture of the Spear Point, and he's got our Columbine to say she'll take him there tonight. Well, now, I don't think it's right, and I told her so. But, of course, she come out as pat as anything with him being an artist and different-like from the rest. Still, I said as I'd rather she didn't, and Adam had better take him, because of the quicksand, you know. It wouldn't be hardly safe to let him go alone. He's a bit foolhardy too. But Adam's not so young as you, Rufus, and he ...
— The Tidal Wave and Other Stories • Ethel May Dell

... responsibility. If it did, we could no longer hang for murder. It would be the bounden duty of every judge, in that case, to acquit every murderer with "Poor fellow, it was his fate; he could not help it!" and send him away with a pat on the shoulder, and an order for coffee and buns, perhaps, in his pocket. As none but sane persons, however, will read my book, it is not necessary to ...
— The Buffalo Runners - A Tale of the Red River Plains • R.M. Ballantyne

... a charming way of running up to every strolling Tommy, Officer, or Sister, seizing their hand, and saying, "Goodnight," and saluting; one reached up to pat ...
— Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915 • Anonymous

... not much use, thought Robin; but, at least, it gave him something to begin at: so he thanked the clerk solemnly and reverentially, and was rewarded by another discreet pat on the arm. ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson

... handclaps greeted the eminently just decision. And Chum left the ring, to find a score of gratulatory hands stretched forth to pat him. Quite a little crowd escorted him back ...
— His Dog • Albert Payson Terhune

... the doing. Easily, fluently, he discoursed of triumphs won at home, abroad, in the camp, on the hustings, at the bar, in the pulpit. And his anecdotes, which illustrated every phase of life, how pat to the moment they were! One boy complained ruefully of having spent three terms under a form-master who had ...
— The Hill - A Romance of Friendship • Horace Annesley Vachell

... he said. "Now, Miss Featherstone, while I'm here I am master of the house, and if it's necessary to go to town it's I that am going—to use Pat's vernacular—and not you. Give me directions, and I'll ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880 • Various

... lof," her father said aloud, with a smile of tidy pride, and a pat upon her back; "no call to look at all ashamed, my dear. To my mind, captain, though I may be wrong, however, but to my mind, this little maid may stan' upright in the presence of ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore

... you have any hints I should be very glad for them, and you have a rich wealth of facts of all kinds. Any cases like the following: the sheldrake pats or dances on the tidal sands to make the sea-worms come out; and when Mr. St. John's tame sheldrakes came to ask for their dinners they used to pat the ground, and this I should call an expression of hunger and impatience. How about the Quagga case? (469/2. See Letter ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II - Volume II (of II) • Charles Darwin

... seventeen very old—but Barbara was dressed in a blue skirt and a middy blouse like Peggy's and wore her hair in a long, thick braid. She had her father's kind eyes and the friendliness of their glance warmed poor little Keineth's homesick soul. She gave the child a little pat on ...
— Keineth • Jane D. Abbott

... came into the station square, all smelling of hay and the rain, the deluge slowly withdrew its forces, recalling them gradually so that the drops whispered now, patter-patter—pit-pat. A pigeon hovered down and pecked at the cobbles. Faint colour threaded the thick ...
— The Cathedral • Hugh Walpole

... many Shapes, so many Postures, so many Garbs, so variously apprehended by several Eyes and Judgments, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain Notion thereof, than to make a Portrait of Proteus, or to define the Figure of the fleeting Air. Sometimes it lieth in pat Allusion to a known Story, or in seasonable Application of a trivial Saying, or in forging an apposite Tale: Sometimes it playeth in Words and Phrases, taking Advantage from the Ambiguity of their ...
— An Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, Humour, Railery, Satire, and Ridicule (1744) • Corbyn Morris

... careful. Cappy always declared that any clerk can negotiate successfully a charter at the going rates in a stiff market, but skippers are, in the final analysis, the Genii of the Dividends. And Cappy knew skippers. He could get more loyalty out of them with a mere pat on the back and a kindly word than could Mr. Skinner, with all his threats, nagging and driving, yet he was an employer who demanded a full measure of service, and never permitted sentiment to plead for an incompetent. And his ships were his ...
— Cappy Ricks • Peter B. Kyne

... further on his head,—this subterfuge also concealed a dark scar on his temple. Whenever the young man pressed closer to the gate, the crowd would fall back as if to give him room. Now and then one would come up, grab his well hand and pat his shoulder approvingly. He seemed to be as much an object of interest as the daughter ...
— Peter - A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero • F. Hopkinson Smith



Words linked to "Pat" :   caress, pit-a-pat, tap, dab, down pat, pitter-patter, fondle, stand pat, strike, chuck, pitty-pat, touch, glib, plausible, appropriate, patness, rap



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