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Practicable   Listen
adjective
Practicable  adj.  
1.
That may be practiced or performed; capable of being done or accomplished with available means or resources; feasible; as, a practicable method; a practicable aim; a practicable good.
2.
Capable of being used; passable; as, a practicable weapon; a practicable road.
Practicable breach (Mil.), a breach which admits of approach and entrance by an assailing party.
Synonyms: Possible; feasible. Practicable, Possible. A thing may be possible, i. e., not forbidden by any law of nature, and yet may not now be practicable for want of the means requisite to its performance.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Practicable" Quotes from Famous Books



... round to Felix, but he was not so practicable as the universal compliments to his good sense showed to be expected. He had expressed his opinion that it was a rash engagement, hitherto improperly carried on; but he could not be brought to advise his brother to break it off on his side while the lady held ...
— The Pillars of the House, V1 • Charlotte M. Yonge

... parents had to swallow all their food for them, keep it down till it was partly digested, and then pass it up again to the hungry children. It made a good deal of delay, and it must have been very unpleasant, but it seemed to be the only practicable way of dealing with the situation. I am glad to say that it did not last very long, for by the time they were two weeks old the young loons were able to take their fish and reptiles ...
— Forest Neighbors - Life Stories of Wild Animals • William Davenport Hulbert

... therefore, natural to expect that the main attack would come from the north along the railroad, and from the east, where the approach from the Transvaal boundary, which is there marked by the Buffalo River, is over a country much more practicable than the western mountain range. These considerations in {p.038} fact appear to have dictated the first ...
— Story of the War in South Africa - 1899-1900 • Alfred T. Mahan

... relieve her sister-in-law's nurse during the day, and thus leaving her husband in charge of the house and the children; of making that visit to her mother which is always in order with the newly-made wife—all these, and other devices not so practicable, came before Mrs. Burton's mind's eye for comparison, but they all and together took sudden wing when Mr. Burton awoke and complained of a raging toothache. Truly pitiful and sympathetic as Mrs. Burton was, she exhibited remarkable resignation in the face of the thought that her ...
— Romance of California Life • John Habberton

... from the pen of Dr. Walsh, British chaplain at Constantinople, entitled "Chaldees in Persia;" and it was the impression made by that article, which led to a positive direction to visit that people, should it be found practicable, and see whether the churches in this western world had any duty to perform to them. The English at Tabriz confessed to an almost entire ignorance of the religious doctrines and character of the Nestorians. The only important fact ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I. • Rufus Anderson

... domestic slavery was one of the first with which the Company had to grapple, the Royal Charter having ordained that "the Company shall to the best of its power discourage and, as far as may be practicable, abolish by degrees, any system of domestic servitude existing among the tribes of the Coast or interior of Borneo; and no foreigners whether European, Chinese or other, shall be allowed to own ...
— British Borneo - Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo • W. H. Treacher

... French regiments at the Hague danced for joy on the Vyverberg when the news arrived there. The States were relieved from an immense embarrassment, and the Advocate was rewarded for having pursued what was after all the only practicable policy. "Do your best," said he to Langerac, "to accommodate differences so far as consistent with the conservation of the King's authority. We hope the princes will submit themselves now that the 'lapis offensionis,' according to their pretence, is got rid of. We received a letter ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... of November the siege of Kinsale was pressed with the utmost vigour by Mountjoy. The place mounted but three or four effective guns, while 20 great pieces of ordnance were continually playing on the walls. On the 1st of December a breach was found practicable, and an assault made by a party of 2,000 English was bravely repulsed by the Spaniards. The English fleet, ordered round to Castlehaven on the 3rd, were becalmed, and suffered some damage from a battery, ...
— A Popular History of Ireland - From the earliest period to the emancipation of the Catholics • Thomas D'Arcy McGee

... bent forward. "That must be boys' talk, Claude. Surely you don't believe such a thing could be practicable?" ...
— One of Ours • Willa Cather

... interest. There have been several reasons for this. In the first place, the French valleys are much less accessible; the roads through some of the most interesting valleys are so bad that they can only be travelled on foot, being scarcely practicable even for mules. There is no good hotel accommodation in the district, only auberges, and these of an indifferent character. The people are also more scattered, and even poorer than they are on the Italian side of the Alps. Then the climate is much more severe, from the ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles

... came back to the tangle into which day by day he himself had been moving deeper and deeper. He saw how simple the whole matter had been, how seemingly sure of success. Broderick was close enough to him in size and form to make the scheme eminently practicable. It was easy for Broderick to dress himself as Thornton dressed, boots, chaps old and worn, big black hat and grey neck handkerchief. It was simple enough for Broderick, here in this land of cattle and horses, to ...
— Six Feet Four • Jackson Gregory

... result. I was in constant consultation with leaders of the different delegations who were trying to unite their forces. There never was any considerable number of those persons who thought the nomination of Mr. Sherman practicable, notwithstanding the high personal respect in which they held him. At the close of the thirty-fourth ballot, when Garfield received seventeen votes, he rose, and the following ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar

... Circumstances, that admitted of no Prospect of Relief; which caus'd a generous Concern in Don Henrique, both for the Sufferings of his Friend, and of the Lady. He proposed several Ways to Don Antonio, for the Release of the fair Prisoner; but none of them was thought practicable, or at least likely to succeed. But Antonio, who (you may believe) was then more nearly engag'd, bethought himself of an Expedient that would undoubtedly reward their Endeavours. 'Twas, that Don Henrique, who was very well acquainted with Ardelia's ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume V • Aphra Behn

... independent power, no war had so much alarmed the people of Rome; and their fear was justified by the difficulties and prodigious efforts which accompanied its suppression. The public treasury was exhausted; loans were an engine of fiscal policy, not then understood or perhaps practicable; and great distress was at hand for the State. In these circumstances, Marcus adopted a wise (though it was then esteemed a violent or desperate) remedy. Time and excessive luxury had accumulated ...
— The Caesars • Thomas de Quincey

... very slow way of getting along, and is only practicable for short distances, and is most frequently employed in confined situations, where it would be unsafe to go fast. You would think, too, that this process could only be resorted to near a shore, or a quay, or a great field of ...
— Rollo in London • Jacob Abbott

... garden plant. Cattle, especially steers, locate slowly, and a good summer's rest usually fortifies them with an inward coat of tallow and an outward one of furry robe, against the wintry storms. I was anxious to get the through cattle to the new range as soon as practicable, and allowed the sellers to set their dates as early as possible, many of them agreeing to deliver on the reservation as soon as the middle of May. Ten wagons and a thousand horses came down during the last days of March, and ...
— Reed Anthony, Cowman • Andy Adams

... of all these difficulties that an attempt has been made in this book to extract principles from isolated facts; to avoid, so far as is possible, the use of Chinese proper names; to introduce these as sparingly and gradually as is practicable when they must be used at all; to describe the general trend of events and life of the people rather than the personal acts of rulers and great officers; and, generally, to put it into the power of any one who can only read English, to gain an intelligible notion of what Chinese antiquity ...
— Ancient China Simplified • Edward Harper Parker

... paid to the ECONOMY OF LABOUR. It is rumoured that some railway directors, fully aware of the facts which we have stated, are meditating, in their exuberant haste for dividends, the introduction of foreign labourers. We doubt whether, under any circumstances, such a scheme is practicable; but of this we entertain no doubt, that it is as mischievous a device as ever was forged in the cabinet of Mammon! Some years ago the cuckoo cry of the political quacks was over-population. Now it seems there is a scarcity of hands, and in order to supply ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 361, November, 1845. • Various

... Representatives, the propriety, under existing circumstances, of confining the business of the present session to providing, by a Joint Resolution, or otherwise, for the financial necessities of the Government, and appointing a Joint Committee to report after an adjournment and as soon as practicable, to their respective Houses, upon the New Code, or such portions of it as may be ready for presentation by the Commission appointed by the Legislature ...
— Speeches of His Majesty Kamehameha IV. To the Hawaiian Legislature • Kamehameha IV

... or three plants rise together, the number should be reduced to one. But there is time yet for seedlings to appear. The bearing beds are more attractive, for they show their toothsome tops. The cutting must be done in a systematic manner, and if practicable always by the same person. It is better to cut all the shoots as fast as they attain a proper size, and sort them for use according to quality, rather than to pick and choose the fat shoots and throw the whole plantation into disorder. Green-topped Asparagus is in favour ...
— The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition • Sutton and Sons

... fine names as we have become familiar with at Leamington, and other watering-places. The declivity of most of the streets keeps them remarkably clean, and they are paved in a very comfortable way, with large blocks of stone, so that the middle of the street is generally practicable to walk upon, although the sidewalks leave no temptation so to do, being of generous width. In many alleys, and round about the abbey and other edifices, the pavement is of square flags, like those of Florence, and as smooth as a palace floor. On the whole, I suppose there ...
— Passages From the French and Italian Notebooks, Complete • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... easy to make ascents upon peaks which had always hitherto presented great difficulties on account of the vast snow-fields, seamed with dangerous crevasses, which hung upon their flanks. These were now so far removed that it was practicable for amateur climbers to go where always before only trained Alpinists, accompanied by the most experienced guides, ...
— The Second Deluge • Garrett P. Serviss

... religionists: we are loath to believe that his mental soundness is in no less peril. Yet a susceptible person will find it hard to put aside this book without an uncomfortable consciousness, that, if not already beside himself, the chances of his becoming so are desperately against him. For what practicable escape is offered from this impending doom? Shall we leave off work and devote ourselves to health? Idleness is a potent cause of derangement. Shall we engage in the hard and monotonous duties of an active calling? Paralysis and other organic lesions use up professional brains ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 77, March, 1864 • Various

... tradespeople, and their carts, and their red-books for orders, with nothing worth the trouble of booking, and everything of less quantity and lower quality than might be if personal pains were taken, which is always the best economy practicable. ...
— Modern Women and What is Said of Them - A Reprint of A Series of Articles in the Saturday Review (1868) • Anonymous

... open the practicable leaf of the great worm-eaten door, which yielded reluctantly, and creaked dolefully as it turned upon its rusty hinges, the curious visitor entered a sort of portico, more ancient than the rest of the building, with ...
— Captain Fracasse • Theophile Gautier

... Adolph Etzler published that time a book entitled: "The New World or Mechanical System to Perform Labour of Man and Beast by Inanimate Powers." I have read it and found the principles correct, and that although all that he proposed, would not be practicable, some of his propositions could be put in practice. And when I saw that Germans were so chained either by materialism or sectarianism, that instead of studying those my five German volumes and of acting accordingly they followed rather after their sectarian and materialistic leaders who have ...
— Secret Enemies of True Republicanism • Andrew B. Smolnikar

... made of tin or plate-iron, covering the chimney above, and on three sides, open on one side, turning on a spindle, and which being guided or governed by a vane, always presents its back to the wind. This method will generally be found effectual, but if not, raising the flues, where practicable, so as their tops may be on a level with or higher than the commanding eminence, is more to be depended on. There is another case of command, the reverse of that last mentioned; it is where the commanding eminence is farther from the wind ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... the ideal end by which to judge whether a given attitude or act is approximating or moving away, our sole alternative is to withdraw all influences of the environment lest they interfere with proper development. Since that is not practicable, a working substitute is set up. Usually, of course, this is some idea which an adult would like to have a child acquire. Consequently, by "suggestive questioning" or some other pedagogical device, the teacher proceeds to "draw out" from the pupil what is desired. If what is desired ...
— Democracy and Education • John Dewey

... many tiers of pink faces, loomed as vast as a Roman amphitheatre. It was a noble tent, a palace of a tent, the auditorium being but an inconsiderable section. There was stabling for fifty horses. There were decent dressing-rooms. There was a green-room, with a wooden, practicable bar running along one end, and a wizened, grizzled, old barman behind it who supplied your wants from the contents of a myriad bottles ranged in perfect order in some obscure nook beneath the counter. They did things in the great manner in the Cirque Rocambeau. ...
— The Mountebank • William J. Locke

... established conclusion that there must in some way be a lover in the case, she sat down in form before the fortress of Alley Mahon's secret, with a firm determination to make herself mistress of it, if the feat were at all practicable. In Alley, however, she had an able general to compete with—a general who resolved, on the other hand, to make a sortie, as it were, and attack Nancy by a series of bold ...
— The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... in which navigation to the westward would be again practicable, which gave us all great pleasure; especially as putrid diseases had begun to make their appearance among us, and a putrid fever had carried off one ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr

... they might plan the division of labour and responsibility as they thought practicable. He agreed with Celia that the younger boys must remain in school, but added—since at this point it became necessary to mollify his son Jefferson—that a fellow with a will might find any number of remunerative odd jobs out of school and ...
— The Second Violin • Grace S. Richmond

... her school and return home" did not disguise the anger of the father over the radical change in Elizabeth's religious condition and associations. But she had ever yielded unquestioning obedience to that father's commands; and so with all practicable dispatch she now prepared to comply with the stern and ...
— Elizabeth: The Disinherited Daugheter • E. Ben Ez-er

... that the byways leading to the abbey from the north of the Tweed were not very practicable for motors and we therefore approached it from the other side. This made it necessary to cross the river on a flimsy suspension bridge for foot-passengers only, and a notice at each end peremptorily forbade that more than half a dozen people pass over the bridge at one time. ...
— British Highways And Byways From A Motor Car - Being A Record Of A Five Thousand Mile Tour In England, - Wales And Scotland • Thomas D. Murphy

... best seasons of the year for brewing are March and October, the weather in those months being generally free from the extremes of heat and cold, which are alike injurious to the process of fermentation. If this is not in all cases practicable, means should be used to cool the place where the liquor is set for working in the summer, and of warming it in the winter: otherwise the beer will be likely to turn sour or muddy. The beer which is brewed in March should not be tapped till October, nor that brewed ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... plaid the Knave egregiously; for he could not but know that Kidd came knavishly by that Ship and Goods. It is reported That the Dutch of Curacao have loaded Three Sloops with those Goods, and sent them to Holland; perhaps it were not amiss to send and watch their Arrivall in Holland, if it be practicable to lay Claim ...
— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various

... any institution, in our view, could strike closer to the roots of our whole educational problem of the future than the bodily transfer of the city school far out into the open country. Such a move seems wholly practicable, economic from every point of view, even the financial, and it would place the school in a position in which profound changes in its whole plan and organization could hardly fail to follow almost automatically. With our present facilities for transportation, the daily exodus of children from the ...
— The Psychology of Nations - A Contribution to the Philosophy of History • G.E. Partridge

... possible means could be devised for securing one out of the many sharks that were still per- petually swarming about the raft. Armed with knives, like the Indians in the pearl fisheries, was it not practicable to attack the monsters in their own element? Curtis ex- pressed his willingness personally to make the attempt, but so numerous were the sharks that we would not for one moment hear of his ...
— The Survivors of the Chancellor • Jules Verne

... child is of prime importance. There is a psychological link between mother and child from the very moment of birth—a link that can be substantially strengthened by breast feeding as far as it is practicable. The attitude of the mother to the child, even before birth, may well have a marked effect upon the child's sense of security. If pregnancy was not welcomed by the mother, her child may come into the world under a distinct handicap, ...
— Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents - The Mazengarb Report (1954) • Oswald Chettle Mazengarb et al.

... question then, which remained to be disposed of, was how far my disclosures should be carried, and whether it would be practicable, and if practicable, safe, that I should return to France at present, or indeed at all, while in my ...
— Valerie • Frederick Marryat

... up many sherds which indicate that the pottery made at that place was the fine cream-color ware for which Tusayan has always been famous. The site offers unusual opportunities for archeological studies, but excavation there is not practicable on account of the opposition of ...
— Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 • Jesse Walter Fewkes

... morning, before he came to me, I had, in a great deal of confusion of thought, and revolving every part of my circumstances in my mind, come to this resolution, that I would go to Lisbon, and consult with my old sea-captain; and if it was rational and practicable, I would go and see the island again, and what was become of my people there. I had pleased myself with the thoughts of peopling the place, and carrying inhabitants from hence, getting a patent for the possession and I know not what; when, in the middle of all this, in comes my ...
— The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe

... The wind howled, and the rain and hail beat across us almost incessantly for two days, and Tardif himself was kept a prisoner in the house, except when he went to look after his live-stock. No doubt it would have been practicable for me to get as far as the hotel, but to what good? It would be quite deserted, for there were no visitors to Sark at this season, and I did not give it a second thought. I was entirely engrossed in my patient, and I learned for the first time what ...
— The Doctor's Dilemma • Hesba Stretton

... more practicable for you," observed the gentleman, smiling as he rose from his seat, "to support those which are ...
— The Rambles of a Rat • A. L. O. E.

... the Eleian, the eldest of Proxenus's captains, commenced speaking as follows: "Generals and captains, it seemed right to us, in view of the present crisis, ourselves to assemble and to summon you, that we might advise upon some practicable course. Would you, Xenophon, repeat what you said ...
— Anabasis • Xenophon

... collected during three successive tours in Normandy, in the summers of 1815, 1818, and 1819; but chiefly in the second of these years. Where I have not depended upon my own remarks, I have endeavored, as far as appeared practicable and without tedious minuteness, to quote my authorities for facts; and I believe that I have done so in most instances, except indeed where I have borrowed from the journals of the companions of my tours,—the nearest and dearest of my connections,—or ...
— Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. I. (of 2) • Dawson Turner

... moves peculiar to these several men is so difficult to describe in writing, and so comparatively easy to acquire over the chess-board, from any competent person, that the learner is strongly recommended to avail himself of the latter means when practicable: for the use, however, of those who have no chess-playing acquaintance at command, the subjoined description ...
— The Blue Book of Chess - Teaching the Rudiments of the Game, and Giving an Analysis - of All the Recognized Openings • Howard Staunton and "Modern Authorities"

... this operation had proved not only practicable, but profitable to the bank, as a mercantile company; yet the country could have derived no benefit front it, but, on the contrary, must have suffered a very considerable loss by it. This operation could not augment, in the smallest degree, ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... contribute hers), try to raise the other 5,000, and then this debt is paid; and when the worst comes to the worst, you will lose yourself only the 5,000, which we shall endeavour to get from your own securities and resources. All this is very practicable with people who are disposed to think of their honour more than of the ...
— George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life • E. S. Roscoe and Helen Clergue

... the advantages which the Americans derive from their federal system; it remains for me to point out the circumstances which render that system practicable, as its benefits are not to be enjoyed by all nations. The incidental defects of the federal system which originate in the laws may be corrected by the skill of the legislator, but there are farther evils inherent in the system which cannot be counteracted ...
— American Institutions and Their Influence • Alexis de Tocqueville et al

... in the last century wrote a tract entitled The Man in the Moon, which was seriously meant to convey the knowledge of common astronomy in the following strange vehicle: A cobbler, Israel Jobson by name, is supposed to ascend first to the top of Penniguit; and thence, as a second stage equally practicable, to the moon; after which he makes the grand tour of the whole solar system. From this excursion, however, the traveller brings back little information which might not have been had upon earth, excepting that the inhabitants of one of the planets, I forget which, ...
— Moon Lore • Timothy Harley

... made to repair, as far as was practicable, the damage the Discovery had sustained in the ice, and in removing the sheathing, eight feet of a plank in the wale were found to be so very rotten as to make it necessary to shift it. The carpenters were sent on shore in search of a tree large enough for the purpose: ...
— Narrative of the Voyages Round The World, • A. Kippis

... which will serve as extensions of the house when occasion demands. I am sure they will not contain the forbidding "front room" set apart for weddings and funerals and rare family gatherings. More open-air life will be fashionable and practicable as soon as we have learned that a wind-break and not a tightly-enclosed space is what we need. In northern latitudes especially it is the wind which makes the climate seem so inclement. The amount of accessible sunshine may be doubled with great advantage in most of ...
— The Cost of Shelter • Ellen H. Richards

... detained for about four Days, and their Friends having the Liberty of seeing them, furnish'd him with Implements proper for his Design, accordingly Mr. Sheppard goes to work, and on the 25th of May being Whit-son Monday at about two of the Clock in the Morning, he had compleated a practicable breach, and sawed of his Fetters; having with unheard of Diligence and Dexterity, cut off an Iron Bar from the Window, and taken out a Muntin, or Bar of the most solid Oak of about nine Inches in thickness, by boring it thro' ...
— The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard • Daniel Defoe

... be obliterated, and every irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. I can say with conscious truth that there is not a man on earth who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us from this heavy reproach in any practicable way. ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... covered with seal's flesh, and in the hollows were pools of oil. Ten bags of blubber were standing ready for sale; and with a view to shew him our good-will, Brother Kohlmeister bartered with him for three of them, which were hid under the stones, to take them with us, if practicable, on our return. ...
— Journal of a Voyage from Okkak, on the Coast of Labrador, to Ungava Bay, Westward of Cape Chudleigh • Benjamin Kohlmeister and George Kmoch

... am constantly asked here what we are going to propose, and I do not know what to say. I have written to Mr. G. and to Lord G. to ask for light, but I should like to have your own personal views as to what is practicable. I think we must cut the cord between Egypt and Turkey, but one cannot conceal from oneself that the consequences will be serious, and may lead to far-reaching complications. The one good thing is that Bismarck is honestly friendly, and I believe will support us in whatever we propose. ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke V1 • Stephen Gwynn

... means were forthcoming; but how was he to do so? "Oh, that's easy enough," said young Bates, the master. "You'll only have to work out of hours as a carpenter, take odd jobs in your vacations, live plainly, and there you are." In England there are few schools where such a plan would be practicable; but in rough-and-ready America, where self-help is no disgrace, there are many, and they are all well attended. In the neighbouring town of Chester, a petty Baptist sect had started a young school which they named Geauga Seminary ...
— Biographies of Working Men • Grant Allen

... College, the Continental method of teaching was to be found. "Student perform experiments on animals. Frogs, curarized or chloroformed, are given them, and the experiment which has been fully explained and demonstrated by the professor, is performed by them as far as practicable."[3] Here, then, we find introduced into England (and perhaps there existing in secret for some time before), that vivisection of animals in illustration of well-known facts, which, but a few years earlier, ...
— An Ethical Problem - Or, Sidelights upon Scientific Experimentation on Man and Animals • Albert Leffingwell

... the old stud and drive in the new. Any man who has done the job with his collar and tie on, knows that he is as pop-eyed as a lobster when he gets through, trying to keep the field of operations in view. I had special bolts made which I had soldered on. This is practicable where the wax paint is used and the mangle of the laundry avoided. A good paint ...
— Cupid's Middleman • Edward B. Lent

... if practicable, and in that event distribute the property belonging to the United States in the Fort, and in the factory or agency, to the Indians ...
— When Wilderness Was King - A Tale of the Illinois Country • Randall Parrish

... little plain between the promontories of Monaco and Monte Carlo is La Condamine, whose handsome houses extend, where practicable, aconsiderable way up the surrounding mountains. In the picturesque gully, entered from beneath the railway viaduct, is the parish church, on the spot where the body of Santa Devota, aRoman martyr, the patroness of Monaco, was washed ashore. In 1070 Hugues, Prince of Monaco, caused the nose and ...
— The South of France—East Half • Charles Bertram Black

... lantern slides to aid in the teaching of geography, history and kindred subjects. It was, therefore, installed under this head. The exhibit received hearty commendation from educators generally, but particularly from foreign visitors. The scheme is thoroughly practicable, and nowhere else is it carried on with the same careful attention to detail, nor is the same perfection of slide making reached as in ...
— New York at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 - Report of the New York State Commission • DeLancey M. Ellis

... chair at Heidelberg, and came to this progressive city. I brought with me a working model of the greatest invention of this inventive age. Yet it was then neither perfect in design nor complete in detail. But now I have hit on the plan that makes it practicable and certain of success. I need only a little money to build it, and the world will ...
— Pharaoh's Broker - Being the Very Remarkable Experiences in Another World of Isidor Werner • Ellsworth Douglass

... but symptoms of mirth. Mr Rogers lifted his practicable hand, and with a red bandanna handkerchief wiped ...
— Hocken and Hunken • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... should arrive there, and, finding more men, could send them back for the rest. I then gave Musa the last of the gold watches the Indian Government had given me; [9] and, bidding Sheikh Said take all our letters and specimens back to the coast as soon as the road was found practicable, set out on the march northwards with Grant and Baraka, and all the rest of my men who were well enough to carry loads, as well as some of Musa's head men, who knew ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke

... giving it notice as a Herbal Simple. The said oleo-resin which exudes on incising the bark furnishes our oil, or so-called spirit of Turpentine. But larger quantities, and of a richer resin, can be had from abroad than it is practicable for England to provide, so that our Turpentine of commerce is mainly got ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... must be approached in the night. This was the only plan practicable; at least, the most likely to succeed. ...
— The Scalp Hunters • Mayne Reid

... carry on my suit, because Lewis is poor; another, because he is still too rich: whom shall I believe? I am sure of one thing, that a penny in the purse is the best friend John can have at last, and who can say that this will be the last suit I shall be engaged in? Besides, if this ejectment were practicable is it reasonable that, when Esquire South is losing his money to sharpers and pickpockets, going about the country with fiddlers and buffoons, and squandering his income with hawks and dogs, I should lay out the fruits of my honest industry in a lawsuit for him, only upon the hopes ...
— The History of John Bull • John Arbuthnot

... doubt that the general was defeated, whether his army was or not. The most cursory study of the map showed that the only practicable road by which the army could be supplied was along the river from Bridgeport. Lookout Mountain commanded this; and not to hold Lookout was practically to announce a purpose to retreat into middle Tennessee. Dana informed the Secretary of War that Garfield and Granger had urged Rosecrans to hold ...
— Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V2 • Jacob Dolson Cox

... hover about the march of the enemy's columns, to lie in wait for them in the passes of the mountains, to pick off their officers from behind rocks and bushes, to attack in numbers only in cases of great moment and when the nature of the ground rendered a successful dash practicable before the straggling column could form square, and to undertake the storming of fortified places, and the plundering of hostile districts only when these were left comparatively defenceless, was finally the method of warfare which experience had forced ...
— Life of Schamyl - And Narrative of the Circassian War of Independence Against Russia • John Milton Mackie

... discovered one, a mere trace made by wild animals through the underwood—sufficiently practicable for him, as he could work his way through any tangle of thicket. Sprawling along it, and rapidly, despite all obstructions, he at length came out on the Acapulco Road, a wide causeway, with the moon full ...
— The Free Lances - A Romance of the Mexican Valley • Mayne Reid

... no thought of immediate practical return. Faraday, studying the laws of electricity, discovered the principle which rendered the dynamo possible. Maxwell, Henry, and Hertz, equally unconcerned with material advantage, made wireless telegraphy practicable. In fact, all truly great advances are thus derived from fundamental science, and the future progress of the world will be largely dependent upon the provision made for scientific research, especially in the fields of physics and ...
— The New Heavens • George Ellery Hale

... to defend the system of equal wages to the most capable and industrious men on the one hand and to inefficient slackers on the other; and as a graduated scale of payment, according to results, is not practicable without arousing ill-feeling and jealousy, the farmer's only remedy is to get rid of the slackers. Inefficiency and slacking are often due to a man's enfeebled mental and physical condition, owing to neglect in his bringing up as a child, or to insufficient ...
— Grain and Chaff from an English Manor • Arthur H. Savory

... was thrown by it into a state of most active commotion. Some fanciers caught at the idea without believing it practicable, but such is the power of imagination among florists, that although considering the undertaking as certain to fail, all their thoughts were engrossed by that great black tulip, which was looked upon to be as chimerical as the black ...
— The Black Tulip • Alexandre Dumas (Pere)

... scaled. The first ascent from the valley was very dangerous; for it was necessary to pass a steeply inclined face of naked rock by the aid of ropes which we brought with us. How any person discovered that this formidable spot was the only point where the side of the mountain was practicable, I cannot imagine. We then cautiously walked along one of the ledges till we came to one of the three streams. This ledge formed a flat spot above which a beautiful cascade, some hundred feet in height, poured ...
— A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World - The Voyage Of The Beagle • Charles Darwin

... trade in the cities, it is not necessary to speak at length. Combination here has seldom been found practicable because of the great number of competing units. There is, however, a noticeable tendency of late to the concentration of the trade in large establishments, which by their prestige and capital are able to take away business from their smaller competitors. ...
— Monopolies and the People • Charles Whiting Baker

... the majority of them have an ideal justice, better than the things about them, juster than the law: for the law is ever imperfect, not attaining even to the utmost practicable degree of perfection; and no man is as just as his own idea of possible and practicable justice. His passions and his necessities ever cause him to sink below his own ideal. The ideal justice which men ever look up to and strive to rise toward, is true; but it will not be realized in this world. Yet we must approach as near to it as practicable, as we should do toward that ideal ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike

... germ of leprosy, or establish any practicable method of preventing disease. He has been of less value to the world as a healer than Pasteur, Lister, Koch, or ...
— The Mistakes of Jesus • William Floyd

... authorities gave up the attempt to prohibit drinking in the army. Lord Kitchener says: "You might as well try to hasten the millennium." And for twenty years they have been using various measures, some of which have proved practicable and others impracticable, to promote temperance. The result is an almost unanimous conclusion upon the part of those who have given the subject study that the most effective means of preventing intemperance ...
— Modern India • William Eleroy Curtis

... disappear eventually. The State should set a standard for a record ink; and, while our present system of keeping records and furnishing supplies will not allow that its use be required on all public records, as in England, it would seem practicable for the secretary of the Commonwealth to advertise for proposals for inks of a certain standard, which the manufacturers should be bound to maintain, and that these should be used in all the State offices. With a State standard ink adopted, its use by recording officers ...
— Forty Centuries of Ink • David N. Carvalho

... form the entrance into Swan River, there is, unfortunately, a bar, made by the continuity of the limestone ridge. Over this bar, the depth, at low water, is but six feet, and is therefore practicable only for boats or rafts. About a mile inside the heads, the water deepens; and then commences a succession of cliffs, or natural wharfs, with four, five, and six fathoms at their bases. The same depths are extended over a magnificent expanse of salt ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 13, - Issue 368, May 2, 1829 • Various

... draw from them the inspiration for higher and better things. Fortunately, every normal child develops ideals. It is for more experienced people to provide the opportunities for the formation of desirable ideals, to guide the ideals after they are formed into practicable channels, to use the ideals to reinforce the will in carrying out our practical purposes in ...
— Your Child: Today and Tomorrow • Sidonie Matzner Gruenberg

... the message which I feel extremely anxious to see recommended. It is generally that Congress should adopt such measures as will effectually guard against misapplications of public moneys, by making specific appropriations whenever practicable; by providing against the application of moneys drawn from the Treasury under an appropriation to any other object or to any greater amount than that for which they have been drawn; by limiting discretionary ...
— Albert Gallatin - American Statesmen Series, Vol. XIII • John Austin Stevens

... longer any of the leaders left alive, except Enjolras and Marius at the two extremities of the barricade, the centre, which had so long sustained Courfeyrac, Joly, Bossuet, Feuilly and Combeferre, gave way. The cannon, though it had not effected a practicable breach, had made a rather large hollow in the middle of the redoubt; there, the summit of the wall had disappeared before the balls, and had crumbled away; and the rubbish which had fallen, now inside, now outside, had, as it accumulated, formed two piles ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... soul loves her and watches her, for it will be true. If you feel, Louis, my dear boy, like bringing your father's remains to rest beside me, you can do so. It will not trouble either of us, for it matters little; we are to be together. This is all, except that, if it be practicable, I should like the burial to take place at the hour of sunset; this seems the most fitting time. While the grave is yet open, please let the children sing together, 'Sweet Rest;' I always like to hear them sing this. To-morrow evening I have something to say to ...
— The Harvest of Years • Martha Lewis Beckwith Ewell

... brow-beat him into concealing the presence of yellow fever, lest other cities quarantine against their commerce. And "concealed" it was, until it had secured so firm a foothold that suppression was no longer practicable, and the city only averted a tremendously disastrous epidemic by the best-fought and most narrowly won battle ever waged in this country ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, July 1908. • Various

... Walter. I thought I should be able to make a rope ladder that would work, but I see it is not practicable." ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in New Mexico • Frank Gee Patchin

... rights of property or privileges of commerce. It is contending for nothing less high and sacred than the rights of humanity." In the third note dated July 21, it is asserted that "the events of the past two months have clearly indicated that it is possible and practicable to conduct submarine operations within the so-called war zone in substantial accord with the accepted practices of regulated warfare." The temper of the American people and the president's notes had succeeded in securing a modification of ...
— History of the American Negro in the Great World War • W. Allison Sweeney

... journey through the Cape Crozier pressure ridges several times in the Discovery days. But then they had daylight, and they had found a practicable way close under the cliffs which at the present moment were between ...
— The Worst Journey in the World, Volumes 1 and 2 - Antarctic 1910-1913 • Apsley Cherry-Garrard

... black and white in a missionary work, which is the principle of this mission, is very difficult, and cannot be done in all particulars in practice by anyone, and by most people, unless brought up to it, probably not at all. Nevertheless, it is practicable, and, as we think, essential, and was in all main points carried out by Bishop Patteson. But the effect of this must not be exaggerated. It is true that we have no servants, yet a boy regularly brought water, &c., for the Bishop, and a woman regularly swept and cleaned his ...
— Life of John Coleridge Patteson • Charlotte M. Yonge

... entirely into Gunter's hands for the commissariat, and be sure you tell him you want novelty—no hackneyed ideas; sparkle and originality in everything, from the eggs to the apples. I should ask you to give us a dance in the evening, with coloured lamps, if that were practicable, but there is the coming back to town; and if we carried the business on to a breakfast next morning, some of the people might begin to be tired, and the women would look faded and limp. So I think we ...
— The Lovels of Arden • M. E. Braddon

... and Holmes continued: "Mr. Greenfield and his friends are very anxious that you should come in with them on the organization of this company, Mr. Worth; that is, of course, providing the scheme proves to be practicable. They instructed me to urge you personally to consider their proposal favorably and to ask you, by all means, to represent them on this expedition if possible. They realize that a man of your recognized ability and standing in the financial ...
— The Winning of Barbara Worth • Harold B Wright

... moment decided he might as well have a little food. He opened the screen door of the cafeteria, half expecting it to prove one of those structures equipped only with a front. But the cafeteria was practicable. The floor was crowded with little square polished tables at which many people were eating. A railing along the side of the room made a passage to the back where food was served from a counter to the proffered tray. He fell into line. No one had asked him how he dared try to eat with real ...
— Merton of the Movies • Harry Leon Wilson

... which had been left unfurnished, had been temporarily fitted up as a bathroom by sundry ingenious devices in the way of a tin bath and a hot and cold water connection, but a full equipment of the best sort was to be put in as soon as practicable, and there was a growing ...
— The Indifference of Juliet • Grace S. Richmond

... rightly, is generally in sympathy with Disraeli's project, and appears to think that it might have been practicable to carry it into effect. He condemns Peel's counter-idea of substituting a middle-class Toryism for that which then existed as "almost a contradiction in terms." I am unable to concur in this view. I see no contradiction, either real or apparent, in Peel's counter-project, ...
— Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913 • Evelyn Baring

... height of 8900 feet, when "as far as they could see in every direction to the westward of them there extended a level plateau, to the south and north could be seen isolated nunataks, and behind them showed the high mountains which they had passed": a practicable road to the west had ...
— The Worst Journey in the World, Volumes 1 and 2 - Antarctic 1910-1913 • Apsley Cherry-Garrard

... disguised herself, and placed herself in a pass which Callaghan should traverse, and met him. Here she informed him who she was, the design of Sitric against him, and warned him to return as fast as possible. This was not practicable. Sitric had barred the way with armed men; and Callaghan and his escort, little prepared for an encounter, found themselves hemmed in by an overwhelming Danish force. To submit without a struggle was never the way with the Momonians. They formed a ...
— An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 • Mary Frances Cusack

... hunt tigers, and it had come into my head that it would be a grand and novel idea, and also extremely practicable, to shoot at these savage creatures from a balloon. This would be an exhilarating sensation, and it would be safe. In no other way would I take my Irene with me when tiger-hunting; and in no other way, I freely admit, would I be very desirous of ...
— John Gayther's Garden and the Stories Told Therein • Frank R. Stockton

... practicable to pass the night on the snow at so great an elevation, where the effort of breathing was a pain, and the icy cold threatened to freeze our aching limbs, and, besides, the guides were unanimous in predicting a violent ...
— Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century • W. H. Davenport Adams

... there is no intention of establishing piece work even in the remote future, and it is next to impossible to make men believe this when the work is of such a nature that they believe piece work to be practicable. In most cases their fear of making a record which will be used as a basis for piece work will cause them to soldier as much ...
— The Principles of Scientific Management • Frederick Winslow Taylor

... current had driven the transports so far to the leeward that it was not practicable to land the centre division till the following morning. Major-General Campbell was meanwhile on his march, and his progress was only feebly opposed by about 500 of the enemy, who ultimately retired from Angier's Plantation ...
— The History of the First West India Regiment • A. B. Ellis

... finally conquered, would be but a poor recompense for the blow which might be given to the prosperity and wealth of the island. All sorts of schemes were mooted, by which the runaways could be beguiled into laying down their arms, but no practicable plan ...
— Under Drake's Flag - A Tale of the Spanish Main • G. A. Henty

... the revenues as a bad one; for, when a large quantity of grain had to be carried to market, the cost of carriage swallowed up the price obtained. Indeed, even if the means of intercommunication and transport had rendered importation practicable, the province had at that time no money to give in exchange for food. Not only had its various divisions a separate currency which would pass nowhere else except at a ruinous exchange, but in that ...
— The Unseen World and Other Essays • John Fiske

... passengers and crew were taken to Bushire where they were set at liberty, and having purchased a country dow by subscription, they fitted her out and commenced their voyage down the gulf, bound for Bombay. On their passage down, as they thought it would be practicable to recover the government packet and treasure sunk off Kenn, they repaired to that island, and were successful, after much exertion, in recovering the former, which being in their estimation of the first importance, as the dispatches were from England ...
— The Pirates Own Book • Charles Ellms

... despair suddenly became vigorous. My nerves were no longer unstrung. My powers, that had long been deadened, were revived. My bosom swelled with a sudden energy, and the conviction darted through my mind, that to end my torments was, at once, practicable ...
— Wieland; or The Transformation - An American Tale • Charles Brockden Brown

... vociferation, in the open air, both while standing, and while walking or running, are, with due caution, effective means of acquiring vigor of utterance. Children when at play are instinctively given to vociferation, which should be permitted, whenever practicable. One of the most remarkable examples of the extent to which the power of voice may be developed, is that of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, the celebrated itinerant preacher. Having listened to his preaching in the open air, in Philadelphia, on a certain occasion, Dr. Franklin ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... and echoing with the roar of a tumultuous torrent. Cascade after cascade thundered and hung up its flag of whiteness in the night, or fanned our faces with the wet wind of its descent. The trail was break-neck, and led to famine-guarded deserts; it had been long since deserted for more practicable routes; and it was now a part of the world untrod from year to year by human footing. Judge of our dismay when, turning suddenly an angle of the cliffs, we found a bright bonfire blazing by itself under an impending rock; and on the ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 5 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... ecclesiastical communion. A competent knowledge, of human nature, and human passions, was sufficient, to persuade these wise, and pacific mediators, that a perfect uniformity in religious opinions, was not practicable, and that it would be entirely extravagant, to imagine that any of these communities, could ever be brought, to embrace universally, and without limitation, the doctrines of the other. They made it, therefore, their principal business, to persuade those, whose spirits were inflamed ...
— The Life of Hugo Grotius • Charles Butler

... is personal service. It cannot be made a thing of set hours, and of measurably set tasks, as office-work maybe. We may talk of "eight-hour shifts," but they are scarcely practicable. Not every baby would go to successive "shifts"! House-demands vary, not only with every household, but ...
— The Warriors • Lindsay, Anna Robertson Brown

... the Municipality, and it was decided to carry it out, as the most practical and practicable. A company was formed to pump up the water, and work ...
— Caesar or Nothing • Pio Baroja Baroja

... go into committee pro forma, in order to afford an opportunity for making the requisite alterations. Upon the question being put that the speaker leave the chair, Mr. Warburton rose and made a long speech in opposition, which was utterly devoid of any practicable suggestions. A long and rambling ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... loss indeed. Nevertheless, it was impossible to shake off or evade his companion; the wilderness, with its jungle of dense rhododendron undergrowth on either side of the path, was impenetrable. There was no alternative practicable. He could only go on and hope ...
— The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and Other Stories • Charles Egbert Craddock

... the poet par excellence of Rome. He will always rank also among the first philosophical poets of the world: and here we find a second standpoint for inquiry. The question how far it is practicable to express philosophy in verse, and to combine the accuracy of scientific language with the charm of rhythm and the ornaments of the fancy, is one which belongs rather to modern than to ancient criticism. In the progress of culture there has been an ever-growing separation between ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... of the three, has not been the favorite, but has held its ground, especially with dentists. But even nitrous oxide is not perfect. It is not equal to the magnetic sleep, when the latter is practicable, but fortunately it is applicable to all. To perfect the nitrous oxide, making it universally safe and pleasant, Dr. U. K. Mayo, of Boston, has combined it with certain harmless vegetable nervines, which appear to control the fatal tendency which belongs to all ansthetics ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, August 1887 - Volume 1, Number 7 • Various

... at work now in deadly earnest to prevent the lines fouling, to stall off a down-stream rush for shaggy water just above the weir, and at the same time to get the fish into the shallow bay down-stream that gave the best practicable landing. Portland bid us both be of good heart, and volunteered to take the rod ...
— American Notes • Rudyard Kipling

... these, with their respective classes, acted upon their own principles, distinctly and independently of each other. And lastly, that by means of circumstances, which they themselves had neither foreseen nor contrived, a junction between them was rendered easily practicable, and that it was beginning to take ...
— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the - Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) • Thomas Clarkson

... together into a volume, although one of them (the third) was once reprinted in a pamphlet form. It is, therefore, inevitable that there should be considerable iteration in the argument, if not in the language. This could not be eliminated except by recasting the whole, which was neither practicable nor really desirable. It is better that they should record, as they do, the writer's freely-expressed thoughts upon the subject at the time; and to many readers there may be some advantage in going more ...
— Darwiniana - Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism • Asa Gray



Words linked to "Practicable" :   executable, operable, practicability, viable, workable, practicableness, possible



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