Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Take off   Listen
verb
Take off  v. i.  
1.
To begin a leap from a surface or a flight into the air; especially, (of a bird or an airplane) to leave the ground and begin to fly; as, flight CA123 took off on schedule at 3:00 PM.
2.
To begin a period of accelerating growth or development; as, the economy took off in the third quarter.
3.
To begin a journey; to depart.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Take off" Quotes from Famous Books



... torch, which always lay in the cave. He soon found them, and, lighting the torch, revealed to Peterkin's wondering gaze the marvels of the place. But we were too wet to waste much time in looking about us. Our first care was to take off our clothes, and wring them as dry as we could. This done, we proceeded to examine into the state of our larder, for, as Jack truly remarked, there was no knowing how long the pirates might remain on ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne

... whence they retired to the fratery for a draught of wine or beer. Then followed Compline, and then the monks were ready for bed, and retired to the dortor. Even there rules followed them, and directed them how they were to take off their shoes, and "to behave with more quiet, self-restraint, ...
— English Villages • P. H. Ditchfield

... And their cudgels and shovels away from them take. Pair maidens and ladies I by the hand get, And pick off their diamonds, tho' ne'er so well set. For when I have comrades we rob in whole bands, Then presently take off your lands from your hands. But, this fury once over, I've such winning arts, That you love me much more than you do ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... case I should probably have to take off my coat, roll up my sleeves, and go to work to earn a living for myself and Mary; but I am not afraid of having to do it just yet," he answered, laughing. Then as a customer entered the store he went off to talk to 'Duke Radford, who was sitting outside ...
— A Countess from Canada - A Story of Life in the Backwoods • Bessie Marchant

... they fall in death, fall forward as they rush upon the enemy. All the world knew that of them, and they knew it of themselves. They knew, also, that when the moment of starting came men of Sidi-bel-Abbes who drew away from them in the streets and the Place Carnot would take off their hats as the Legion went by. It would ...
— A Soldier of the Legion • C. N. Williamson

... kind of jacket put on, to guard him from the cold, went out generally very early in the morning to a neighbouring house, to visit another dog of the same breed which lived there. He always endeavoured, by various coaxing gestures, to prevail upon the people of the house to take off his night-jacket, in order that he might play more at ease with his companion. It once happened, when he could not get any one to do him this service, that he found means, by various contortions of his body, rubbing ...
— Anecdotes of Dogs • Edward Jesse

... take off your wraps," Martha was saying, "and then come down. Your grandmother wants to see ...
— Phyllis - A Twin • Dorothy Whitehill

... to the counter, checked in, and they told him his plane would take off on time. He glanced at his watch. ...
— Ten From Infinity • Paul W. Fairman

... the house stating that he must pay up his old account before they would ship him any more goods; and the old bill was one which was dated May 1st, four months, and was not due until September 1st. They wrote him this before the first of June, at which time he was entitled to take off six per cent. He simply sent a check for what he owed them and, to be sure, wrote them to cancel his order. There was a good bill and a loyal customer gone—all on account ...
— Tales of the Road • Charles N. Crewdson

... take off his coat while he was working in the galley, Solomon gave the precious letter into ...
— In the Days of Poor Richard • Irving Bacheller

... recognize the victory which he had gained over himself in abridging Ivan's punishment. After dinner he sent for the serf, who appeared with his forehead and hands furrowed with bloody scars. His lips bore their habitual smile, which was always a mystery to me. His master ordered him to take off his vest, turn down his shirt, and kneel before him; then drawing from his pocket a vial full of some ointment whose virtues he lauded highly, he dressed the wounds of the moujik with his own hands. This operation finished, ...
— Stories of Modern French Novels • Julian Hawthorne

... Piper stopped his whistling. "'T is no need to be cheerful, Laddie," he explained to the dog, "when there's none to be saddened if you're not. We don't know about the loose link, and perhaps we can never find it, but we're going to try. We'll take off the chain and put the poor soul in the sun again before we go away, if we can learn how to do it, but I'm thinking 't is a heavy chain and the sun has long since ceased ...
— A Spinner in the Sun • Myrtle Reed

... and higher, and burned the frost from the grass, and while the boys worked and yelled and chattered they got hotter and hotter, and began to take off their shoes and stockings, till every one of them was barefoot. Then, about three or four o'clock, they would start homeward, with half a bushel of walnuts in their wagon, and their shoes and stockings piled in on top of them. That is, if they had good luck. In a story, they ...
— A Boy's Town • W. D. Howells

... "Now, you take off your coat," he said, the pipe in his hand trembling as he stirred nervously in his chair. "You take your coat right off an' set down to the supper-table, same as usual, do you hear? Eat your victuals an' then go to your bed an' git over this crazy fit that Patience has started workin' in ...
— The Story Of Waitstill Baxter • By Kate Douglas Wiggin

... back to her again, as if it were a nine days' wonder. Whoever the visitor was, he would stand quietly, watching the process of the hour as if he were at a play, and Margaret would turn and smile pleasantly, then go right on with her work. The visitor would generally take off a wide hat and wave it cordially, smile back a curious, softened smile, and by and by he would mount his horse and pass on reflectively down the trail, wishing he could be a boy and go back ...
— A Voice in the Wilderness • Grace Livingston Hill

... you are my superior. Still, a thing done has an end. You have won back your wife in open fight. I fancy, by the way, that you have rather laid up future trouble for yourself in doing so, but I honor the skill you have shown. Colonel Musgrave, it is to you that, as the vulgar phrase it, I take off my hat." ...
— The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck - A Comedy of Limitations • James Branch Cabell

... have some fun at Christmas-time, of course. How delightful! We will have such fun together! But take off your things. You are not cold, I hope. (Helps her.) Now we will sit down by the stove, and be cosy. No, take this armchair; I will sit here in the rocking-chair. (Takes her hands.) Now you look like your old self again; it was only the ...
— A Doll's House • Henrik Ibsen

... between eleven and twelve feet I should think, and I have seen Leo jump over twenty when he was a young fellow at collage; but then, think of the conditions. Two weary, worn-out men, one of them on the wrong side of forty, a rocking-stone to take off from, a trembling point of rock some few feet across to land upon, and a bottomless gulf to be cleared in a raging gale! It was bad enough, God knows, but when I pointed out these things to Leo, he put the whole ...
— She • H. Rider Haggard

... silk was too good for common wear, dear," fibbed the teacher, seeing the sorrow in the thin, brown, wistful face. "It is a pretty idea to wear a dress that was made in war times, and I never would have thought of it myself. But we must take off the ribbons from your hair, Theodora, and fix it in the old-fashioned way to go with your gown. I remember a picture of my mother with her hair done in the queerest braids. Come, we will have ...
— Tabitha at Ivy Hall • Ruth Alberta Brown

... in this way," said the second speaker, as he removed the pillow to the proper place, and raised the prostrate gentleman's head; "I'll take off his choker and make him easy about the neck, and then we'll shut him up, and leave him. Why the beggar's asleep already!" And so the two gentlemen went away, and ...
— The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green • Cuthbert Bede

... the saloon after having breakfast and set to work. Till five o'clock in the evening I employed myself in arranging my notes. At that moment—(ought I to attribute it to some peculiar idiosyncrasy)—I felt so great a heat that I was obliged to take off my coat. It was strange, for we were under low latitudes; and even then the Nautilus, submerged as it was, ought to experience no change of temperature. I looked at the manometer; it showed a depth of sixty feet, to which ...
— Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea • Jules Verne

... in Egypt, and had been assured that it was a genuine Cleopatra relic. 'I can't answer for that,' he said, laughing, 'but it is certainly many centuries old. I have no doubt it is genuine so far as age goes.' Well, the night my cousin and I came here together I did not take off my gloves until after we had gone in to the seance room, so no one could have seen my ring—and you know Mrs Gray's sittings always begin in the dark? I took my gloves off when I found we had to sit in a circle holding hands, and ...
— Seen and Unseen • E. Katharine Bates

... United Kingdom. The judges were Brigadier-General Henderson, Captain Godfrey Paine, Mr. Mervyn O'Gorman, and Major Sykes. The tests imposed and the award of the prizes showed clearly enough that what the military authorities were seeking was a strong, fairly fast machine, a good climber, able to take off and alight on uneven ground and to pull up within a short distance after alighting. Further, a high value was attached to range of speed, that is, to the power of flying both fast and slow, and to a free and open view from the seat of the observer. Both the first prizes were won by Mr. ...
— The War in the Air; Vol. 1 - The Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force • Walter Raleigh

... dismiss those who have come for me and seek reunion with thee, Inshallah—an it be the will of Allah Almighty." Then he farewelled her and doffed what he had of dress, and when Al-Hayfa asked him, "Wherefore take off these clothes?" he answered,[FN226] "I will not inform anyone of our news, and indeed this dress mostly befitteth womenkind." Then he went forth from her with a grief-bound heart and she wept and cried, ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... my beloved brethren, remember my words. Behold, I take off my garments, and I shake them before you; I pray the God of my salvation that he view me with his all-searching eye; wherefore, ye shall know at the last day, when all men shall be judged of their works, that the God of Israel did witness that I shook your iniquities from my ...
— The Book Of Mormon - An Account Written By The Hand Of Mormon Upon Plates Taken - From The Plates Of Nephi • Anonymous

... men were bearing a huge box, and now entered, much embarrassed at being unable to take off their caps in the presence of the pastor, but their deep voices pronounced a "Good Yule!" and their thick, soft caps went off in a hurry when they had deposited their heavy burden. "We were to open it, pastor," they said, and they forthwith produced their tools from the slouching pockets ...
— Little Tora, The Swedish Schoolmistress and Other Stories • Mrs. Woods Baker

... "We'd have a better dance if you took off that flapping robe. But then, of course, you'd have to take off your wigs and things, and you wouldn't ...
— Patty's Social Season • Carolyn Wells

... you tell me that you were poor? It is only milords who wipe their noses with handkerchiefs. Take off the box which you have behind ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner

... entertainment of the company, and particularly of my uncle, who burst out a-laughing for the first time since I have been with him; and took notice, that the part seemed to be very tender. 'Sir (cried the Doctor) it is naturally a tender part; but to remove all possibility of doubt, I will take off the wart this ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett

... craft before this rumpus took place I fancy the Moor had captured and plundered a well-laden merchantman. In that case the prize-money will be worth a good round sum, and as the admiral gets a picking out of it he will be still more inclined to look favourably on the matter. Here comes the boat to take off the prisoners. I have no doubt some of them will be hanged, especially as they will not be able to give any satisfactory explanation as to the fate of the merchantman. As soon as we have got rid of them we will overhaul a few of the bales and ...
— By Conduct and Courage • G. A. Henty

... enforce the injunction, but none were in evidence. As they drew up to the open door, he saw Lynwood and Norton, pilot and engineer, standing just inside waiting for him. There was no strain in their faces to show they had received orders not to take off with him. ...
— Eight Keys to Eden • Mark Irvin Clifton

... do think we ought to go to Sophie, I do indeed," said Mervyn; "listen, she is asking the housemaid if she has seen us anywhere. And oh, she is coming here to look for us—she will be awfully cross! Do let us go into the nursery quietly and take off our things and ...
— Naughty Miss Bunny - A Story for Little Children • Clara Mulholland

... O'Connell with his biting witty tongue, attacked his opponent on account of his ill-favoured countenance. But, not to be outdone, and thinking to turn the gathering against O'Connell, his adversary called out, "Take off your wig, and I'll warrant that you'll prove the uglier." The witty Irishman immediately responded, amidst roars of laughter from the crowd, by snatching the wig from off his own head and exposing to view a bald pate, destitute of a single hair. The relative question of beauty was ...
— At the Sign of the Barber's Pole - Studies In Hirsute History • William Andrews

... resolved, while they had the Roman army near at hand, to take off Brachyllas, who was the principal leader of the faction which favoured the king; and they chose an opportunity for the deed, when, after having been at a public feast, he was returning to his house inebriated, and accompanied by some of his debauched companions, who, ...
— History of Rome, Vol III • Titus Livius

... at the Red Elfberg's hind-legs to pull him off, and the brute, keeping his front pats well in Jimmy's stomach, turns his big head and snaps at her. So that was all I asked for, thank you. I went up under him. It was really nothing. He stood so high that I had only to take off about three feet from him and come in from the side, and my long, "punishing jaw" as mother was always talking about, locked on his woolly throat, and my back teeth met. I couldn't shake him, but I shook myself, and every time I shook myself there was thirty pounds of weight tore at his windpipes. ...
— Ranson's Folly • Richard Harding Davis

... at meals; I can't take off my coat, Nor use my knife to eat, nor tie my napkin 'round my throat, Nor drink out of my sasser. Gosh! I hardly draw my breath 'Thout Mary Ann a-tellin' me she's "mortified to death!" Before they ...
— Cape Cod Ballads, and Other Verse • Joseph C. Lincoln

... voyage, and not wishing to lower his own feeling of importance by asking too many questions of his inferiors, Captain Bonnet had bedecked himself a day too soon, and there were some jeers and sneers among his crew when he descended to his cabin to take off his fine clothes. But his self-complacency was well armoured, and he did not hear the jokes of which he was the subject, especially by the little clique of which Black Paul was the centre. But the sailing-master ...
— Kate Bonnet - The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter • Frank R. Stockton

... of talk, Giraffe," said Davy; "we've sure all got troubles of our own as it is, without that silly calling of names. For my part I think the engine is doing its prettiest, and I take off my hat to it. Don't, you go to calling it hard names, or it might get even by kicking over the traces, and quitting on us. Then we would be in a fine pickle. But I think it's better to keep lying down, all you can, when it blows like this. Make room ...
— The, Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island - or Marooned Among the Game-fish Poachers • Herbert Carter

... that he used all possible expedition to join the army; the not doing of which, with an implication of Cowardice as the cause, is the utmost extent of the charge against him; and to take off this implication he refers to the evidence of a fact present and manifest,—the surrender of Coleville; in whose hearing he speaks, and to whom therefore he is supposed to appeal. Nothing then remains but that we should inquire if Falstaff's answer was really founded in truth; "I speeded ...
— Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare • D. Nichol Smith

... utility of beauty and dress. He followed them with a keen, suggestive glance. At the same time, he was not so dull but that a good woman commanded his respect. Personally, he did not attempt to analyse the marvel of a saintly woman. He would take off his hat, and would silence the light-tongued and the vicious in her presence—much as the Irish keeper of a Bowery hall will humble himself before a Sister of Mercy, and pay toll to charity with a willing and reverent hand. But he would ...
— Sister Carrie • Theodore Dreiser

... found it hard, if not impossible, to acquiesce in defeat. Two o'clock boomed from the watching towers of Westminster over the great city. She rose from her bed, cold as a marble figure on a monument, and went to the dressing-table to take off her few and simple ornaments. The mirror on it was the same from which that alien smile had peered twelve months ago, filling the sad soul of Milly with trembling fear and sinister foreboding. The white face that stole into its ...
— The Invader - A Novel • Margaret L. Woods

... which met his eye was a strong oak cupboard, with a cornice around the top. It struck him that it would make a grand pulpit, if only it was-strong enough: on examination, he found it all he could desire in this respect. He thought if he could take off the top and make a "plat" to stand upon, it would do "first-rate." He "told Father" so, and wondered how he could get it. He asked a stranger who was there, walking about, what he thought that old cupboard ...
— From Death into Life - or, twenty years of my ministry • William Haslam

... I'm not. Come in and take off those wet garments, and put on some of Phil's." So she half commanded half persuaded him, still grasping his arm with her ...
— The Heiress of Wyvern Court • Emilie Searchfield

... cuckoo|, parrot, ape, monkey, mocking bird, mime; copyist, copycat; plagiarist, pirate. V. imitate, copy, mirror, reflect, reproduce, repeat; do like, echo, reecho, catch; transcribe; match, parallel. mock, take off, mimic, ape, simulate, impersonate, personate; act &c. (drama) 599; represent &c. 554; counterfeit, parody, travesty, caricature, lampoon, burlesque. follow in the steps of, tread in the steps, follow in the footsteps ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... place meal on these rocks as an offering to the turbulent deities, which they believe preside over spots fatal to many a large canoe. We were slily told that native Portuguese take off their hats to these river gods, and pass in solemn silence; when safely beyond the promontories, they fire muskets, and, as we ought to do, give the canoe- men grog. From the spoor of buffaloes and elephants it appears that these animals frequent Lupata in considerable numbers, ...
— A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries • David Livingstone

... Then she coughed again. "Ow, this dust!" gasped she. "For goodness' sake, John, get me home where I can get some water and take off these dusty clothes or I shall choke ...
— The Copy-Cat and Other Stories • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... rushed to Rudabeh's chamber to destroy her, had not Sindokht fallen at his feet and restrained him. He insisted, however, on her being brought before him; and upon his promise not to do her any harm, Sindokht complied. Rudabeh disdained to take off her ornaments to appear as an offender and a supplicant, but, proud of her choice, went into her father's presence, gayly adorned with jewels, and in splendid apparel. ...
— Persian Literature, Volume 1,Comprising The Shah Nameh, The - Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan • Anonymous

... He shook his head; believed that they had hit on the true cause now. Such a sickness had nothing natural about it—there must be magic and witchwork in it; but he would have the whole land searched for the girl, and make her give the young lord some potion that would take off the spell. ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V1 • William Mienhold

... cannot fall; for the boat being very shallow, she sits in the bottom, with her knees up to her breast, and between her knees and body, the child lies perfectly secure. The men also dive for shell-fish, which they take off from the rocks under water; we frequently saw them leap from a rock into the surf or broken water, and remain a surprizing time under: when they rise to the surface, whatever they have gathered they throw on shore, where a person attends to receive ...
— An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island • John Hunter

... the letter. The envelope bore the postmarked Honduras stamp. It had been rubbed on the dusty pavement to take off the newness. It was in her husband's handwriting. There was no mistake about it—it was a letter ...
— The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol • William J. Locke

... late in the month, however, I saw a cut-worm come out from behind a cabbage stump and take off his ear muff. He was a little stiff in the joints, but he had not lost hope. I saw at once now was the time to assist him if I had a spark of humanity left. I searched every work I could find on agriculture to find out what it was that farmers fed their blamed cut-worms, ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye

... first, Bess dear. You should have been with me. In the first place, I had a puncture, and you'll never in the world guess who helped me take off the shoe—" ...
— The Motor Girls on Waters Blue - Or The Strange Cruise of The Tartar • Margaret Penrose

... suffering, he would be less blameful, and she less mindful of her trouble. If it did not come—but he would not think of that yet! If she was thirsty meantime—well, it might rain, and there was always the dew which they used to brush off the morning grass; he would take off his shirt and catch it in that, like a shipwrecked mariner. It would be funny, and make her laugh. For himself he would not laugh; he felt he was getting very old and grown up ...
— A Waif of the Plains • Bret Harte

... in the left arm; but very fortunately the wound did not disable me," replied the lieutenant as he proceeded to take off his coat. ...
— Stand By The Union - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray—Afloat • Oliver Optic

... the fields. Jeanne, who had not been willing to take off her armour, awoke aching in every limb.[920] She heard mass and received communion from her chaplain, and exhorted the men-at-arms always to confess their sins.[921] Then the army ...
— The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) • Anatole France

... oysters until free from sand; place in dripping pan in a hot oven and roast until shells open; take off the top shell, being careful not to spill the juice in lower shell; serve in the shell with side dish ...
— Stevenson Memorial Cook Book • Various

... or three days after forking up, it will be necessary to take off the box and light, for the purpose of making the bed even. In doing this, stir it up from about the depth of a foot, and shake it to pieces; then put on the box again, and give the light one or two inches of air, according to the temperature ...
— The art of promoting the growth of the cucumber and melon • Thomas Watkins

... dish on it, on which place a fourteen-pound weight; this will cause it to cut firm. When quite cold, remove strings and cloth, and it is ready to be ornamented with jelly. When the stock in which the galantine was cooked is cold take off the fat and clarify it, first trying, however, if it is in right condition, by putting a little on ice. If it is not stiff enough to cut firm, you must reduce it by boiling; if too stiff, that is approaching glaze, add a little water, then clarify by adding whites of eggs, ...
— Culture and Cooking - Art in the Kitchen • Catherine Owen

... with men, their national peculiarities and customs are entitled to consideration. In addressing the common Frenchman take off your hat; in addressing the common Irishman make ...
— The Fiend's Delight • Dod Grile

... or four times about the hook with the same silk with which your hook was armed; and having made the silk fast, take the hackle of a cock or capon's neck, or a plover's top, which is usually better: take off the one side of the feather, and then take the hackle, silk or crewel, gold or silver thread; make these fast at the bent of the hook, that is to say, below your arming; then you must take the hackle, the silver or gold thread, and work it up to the wings, shifting ...
— The Complete Angler • Izaak Walton

... and words, and make them seem to swell, and open your hand &c. This play is to be varied an hundred waies for as you finde them all vnder the boxe or candlesticke, so may you goe to a stander by, and take off his hat or cap and shew the balls to be there, by conueying them thereinto as you turne the bottome vpward. These things to them that know them are counted ridiculous, but to those that ...
— The Art of Iugling or Legerdemaine • Samuel Rid

... commanding the British forces on Rhode Island in 1777, was a petty tyrant, imperious, irascible, and cruel. He would command citizens of Newport who met him on the streets to take off their hats in deference to him, and if not obeyed, he would knock them off with his cane. If he saw a group of citizens talking together, he would shake his cane at them, and shout, "Disperse, you rebels!" For slight offenses citizens ...
— Harper's Young People, February 17, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... could well afford to pay two dirhems a day. "Then," muttered Firuz, "I'll construct a windmill for you that shall keep grinding until the day of judgment." Omar was struck with his menacing air. "The slave threatens me," said he, calmly. "If I were disposed to punish anyone on suspicion, I should take off his head"; he suffered him, however, ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 4 • Various

... a poor miserable sinner—I know it! But I tell you—I've got a heart, damn it! Just let a poor wretch come and tell me he is hungry, and I'll take off my own shirt and give ...
— Master Olof - A Drama in Five Acts • August Strindberg

... Apricocks and Pear-Plums and boil them tender, then take as much Sugar as they do weigh, and take as much water as will make the syrup, take your green Peaches before they be stoned and thrust a pin through them, and then make a strong water of ashes, and cast them into the hot standing lye to take off the fur from them, then wash them in three or four waters warm, so then put them into so much clarified Sugar as will candy them; so boil them, and ...
— A Queens Delight • Anonymous

... "No—I won't take off my things," she replied to Mrs. Gartney's advance of assistance. "I've just come over to tell you what I'm going to do. I've made up my mind to take the minister to board. And when the washing and ironing's ...
— Faith Gartney's Girlhood • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney

... account of my escape from him, looked so unreasonable to slaveholders, that many of them charged him with selling me and keeping the money; while others believed that I had got away from him, and was then in the neighborhood, trying to take off my wife and child, which was true. Lane declared that in less than five minutes after I run out of the stable in Louisville, he had over twenty men running and looking in every direction after me; but all without success. They could hear ...
— Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself • Henry Bibb

... usual way of getting into step with people is simplicity itself. I take off my coat and go to work with them and the first thing I know we have become first-rate friends. One doesn't dream of the possibilities of companionship in labour until he has ...
— The Friendly Road - New Adventures in Contentment • (AKA David Grayson) Ray Stannard Baker

... poor Lucy's lips to please him. She hardly had strength to reach her cage. She had none to eat of Mrs. Berry's nice little dinner. To be alone, that she might cry and ease her heart of its accusing weight of tears, was all she prayed for. Kind Mrs. Berry, slipping into her bedroom to take off her things, found the fair body in a fevered shudder, and finished by undressing her completely ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... quietly as he can, and he will naturally bear high taxes and rivalry in England, or emigrate to any part of the Continent, or to America, rather than plunge into the tumult of Irish politics and passions. There is nothing which Ireland wants more than large manufacturing towns to take off its superfluous population. But internal peace must come first, and then the arts of peace will follow. The foreign manufacturer will hardly think of embarking his capital where he cannot be sure that his existence is safe. ...
— Peter Plymley's Letters and Selected Essays • Sydney Smith

... were perfectly saturated with water, that is, held as much water in suspension as possible to hold without draining off, and drains were laid at a proper depth from the surface, and in sufficient number to take off all surplus water, then the entire rain-fall upon the surface would be water of drainage—presuming, of course, the land to be level, and the air at saturation, so as to prevent evaporation. The water coming upon the surface, would force ...
— Farm drainage • Henry Flagg French

... and he must do his duty; but someday we're going away,—he, and I, and you, little mother darling, when there's no war anywhere in sight and therefore no duty to stay for, and we'll go and live in America, and he'll take off all those buttons and spurs and things, and we'll give ourselves up to freedom, and harmlessness, and art, and beauty, and we'll have friends who neither intrigue, which is what the class at the top here lives by, nor who waste ...
— Christine • Alice Cholmondeley

... up and take off that wet coat! Here,"—rising to help him—"I've always heard that doctors had absolutely no sense. Sitting around in a ...
— The Glory Of The Conquered • Susan Glaspell

... o'clock the Squire roused John Knapp. "It is one o'clock, John; now take off your boots. I don't want him to know that there is anyone in the house till we get hold of him. I am going to lie down on the sofa in the parlor. The moment you hear footsteps ...
— Colonel Thorndyke's Secret • G. A. Henty

... Maamme is sung every one rises, the men take off their hats, and nearly all those present join in the song, their demeanour being most respectful, for a Finn is ...
— Through Finland in Carts • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie

... all directions; these were cones from six to ten feet high, formed of clay so thoroughly cemented by a glutinous preparation of the insects, that it was harder than sun-baked brick. I selected an egg-shaped hill, and cut off the top, exactly as we take off the slice from an egg. My Tokrooris then worked hard, and with a hoe and their lances, they hollowed it out to the base, in spite of the attacks of the ants, which punished the legs of the intruders considerably. I now made a draught-hole ...
— The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia • Samuel W. Baker

... rocks, his assistant informed the rancher who he was. A change took place at once in the man's demeanor. He proved a most generous and entertaining host. "Why, Captain," said he, "I thought I knew you. I helped you take off your suit once at ...
— The Story of Paul Boyton - Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World • Paul Boyton

... Her nerves were overwrought; the slightest contrariety upset her. The sweet fresh country air streamed in and the tranquil moonlight. These alone would ordinarily have been enough to soothe her, but now she paid no heed to them. When she had opened the windows, she began to take off her things in feverish haste, pacing about the room restlessly the while, as if that helped her to be quicker. Everything she wore seemed too hot, too heavy, or too tight, and she flung hat and cloak and bodice down just where she took ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand

... after dinner," Edith announced; "what do you say, boys? Let's take off our shoes and stockings, and walk down to the second bridge. Eleanor can sit ...
— The Vehement Flame • Margaret Wade Campbell Deland

... muscular feelings to preserve his perpendicular attitude, contrary to the erroneous persuasions of his eyes. Whilst the person, who walks in the dark, staggers, but without dizziness; for he neither has the sensation of moving objects to take off his attention from his muscular feelings, nor has he the spectra of those motions continued on his retina to add to his confusion. It happens indeed sometimes to one landing on a tower, that the idea of his not having room to extend his base by moving one of his feet outwards, when he begins ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. I - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... knife, a string and a little piece of bent and stiffened wire. He caught perch, bass, suckers, trout, sunfish, catfish, and other kinds, the names of which he did not know. Sometimes when his hook and line had brought him all that was needed, and the day was hot, he would take off his clothing and plunge into the deep, cool pools. Often his friend, Paul Cotter, was with him. Paul was a year younger than Henry, and not so big. Hence the larger boy felt himself, in a certain sense, Paul's teacher and protector, which gave him a comfortable feeling, and a desire ...
— The Young Trailers - A Story of Early Kentucky • Joseph A. Altsheler

... then you'll be pleased to go a bye-way, that it mayn't be seen you do so much honor to your servant. O my good girl! said he, I doubt you are afraid of yourself being talked of, more than me: for I hope by degrees to take off the world's wonder, and teach them to expect what is to follow, as ...
— Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded • Samuel Richardson

... himself by an appeal to the exact letter of the law, even when his case is full of equity, he will unavoidably gain a great advantage, because if he can withdraw from the cause of the opposite party that point on which it principally relies, he will mitigate and take off the effect of all its violence and energy. But all the rest of the common topics taken from the divisions of assumptive argument will suit each side of the question. It will also be suitable for him whose argument takes its stand on ...
— The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 • Cicero

... within about a mile of the heavily labouring craft, George ordered sail to be shortened, and announced to his officers his intention to stand by the wreck until the sea should moderate sufficiently to enable boats to be lowered, when he would take off the crew, and every preparation was made accordingly. The English ship was so manoeuvred as to enable her to pass athwart the stranger's stern and heave-to close under the lee of the latter; and presently, as the space between the two craft rapidly narrowed, George was enabled ...
— The Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer • Harry Collingwood

... once when she had slapped Paula's pretty face, the odd child rubbed her cheek and said, with the droll calmness that rarely deserted her, "When you want to strike me again, mother, please take off ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... necessary since your father has invested me with authority to give you permission," remarked Violet pleasantly. "You may go if you will keep with Rosie and the others. But, Lulu, my dear, I wish you would first go up to your room, take off those coral ornaments and put them away carefully. They do not correspond well with the dress you have on, and are not suitable for you to wear down on the beach at this ...
— Grandmother Elsie • Martha Finley

... nickel-steel sockets, with ball bearings supported by nickel-steel ribs for lightness, was protected by a water-tight casing, and all the other parts made of the very best metal, so as to secure both lightness and strength, with a complicated set of cog-wheels to take off the strain. The steering was by a neat wheel right forward, where the look-out man could have an uninterrupted view. Forward, too, was the socket for the metal mast. The boat was fifteen feet in length, with ...
— In Search of the Okapi - A Story of Adventure in Central Africa • Ernest Glanville

... lamp, and, wounded though I was, we started running down the street. 'Great fool,' she said. 'You can do nothing but foolish things. Besides, I told you I would bring you bad luck.' She made me take off my uniform and put on a striped cloak, and this with a handkerchief over my head, enabled me to pass fairly well for a peasant. Then she took me to a house at the end of a little lane, and she and another gipsy washed and dressed my wounds. ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VI. • Various

... orders and saving them from every trouble. She knew that these fine folk thought servants inferior beings. But was she not of the same flesh and blood as they? Peggy wore a fine dress, but she was no better; take off her dress and they were the same, ...
— Esther Waters • George Moore

... Violet Mauling—pretty, empty-faced, doll-eyed Violet Mauling at the cigar stand. And all the long night and all the long day, the genii, working on the Harvey job, cast spells, put on charms, and did their deepest sorcery to take off the power of the magic runes that young Tom's black art were putting upon her; and day after day the genii felt their highest potencies fail. So no wonder they mumbled and grumbled as they bent over their chores. For a time, the genii had ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White

... to confess that they did," replied Grace. "If I were you, James, I'd take off that costume and hurry away. Miss Brant is liable to inform the police, and they might not look at initiation ...
— Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School - Or, Fast Friends in the Sororities • Jessie Graham Flower

... went to a real Japanese hotel. Of course, in a great city like Tokyo, there are plenty of English or European hotels, but in this case I went for the experience. Before entering we had to take off our shoes. No person enters a real Japanese house with shoes on. However, they wear clogs that can be kicked off at the door. Entering a small vestibule of the hotel a servant bowed, seated us, took ...
— Birdseye Views of Far Lands • James T. Nichols

... head very high, quivering through his whole body while he eyed the fence. It was murderously high, and all things were against him, the long run, the rise of the ground going toward the fence, and the gravel from which he must take off for ...
— The Seventh Man • Max Brand

... into the room and took me gently by the arm. "Take off your clothes," he said, "and lie ...
— Ghosts I have Met and Some Others • John Kendrick Bangs

... I said, "do we take off our shoes at the threshold or say grace, or perform some kind of ceremonial lustration? We can't go in just as ...
— Gossamer - 1915 • George A. Birmingham

... on making them change, and so she led them down into the cabin. Uncle Tad helped in the work of recovering the paddles, and then he suggested that the two young men might also like to take off ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove • Laura Lee Hope

... and so 'twas. But you are tired, my dear, no doubt, and a'most faint for a glass of wine. Come and take off your things and rest yourself a bit, while I tell Mr. ...
— Molly Bawn • Margaret Wolfe Hamilton

... fact that the minority of students who loved them were constantly held back by a majority who disliked them; and I came to the conclusion that the true way to promote such studies in the United States was to take off this drag as much as possible, by presenting other courses of studies which would attract those who had no taste for Latin and Greek, thus leaving those who had a taste for them free to carry them much farther than had been customary in American universities up to that time. My expectations ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White

... "But if I should take off my loup, you'd be sorry. Of course, manlike, you're hoping ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume X (of X) • Various

... from pestilential air, but was rich and fertile, full of highly cultivated small farms, where corn was raised in furrows made by a small hand plough, and herds of sheep, goats, and oxen browsed in the pasture lands. The owners of these lands would on public days take off their rude working dress and broad-brimmed straw hat, and putting on the white toga with a purple hem, would enter the city, and go to the valley called the Forum or Marketplace to give their votes for the officers ...
— A Book of Golden Deeds • Charlotte M. Yonge

... four million and oneth. Sometimes I get so tired of being nobody at all, with not even enough cleverness in me to wrest a living from this big city, that I long to stand out at the edge of the curbing, and take off my hat, and wave it, and shout, 'Say, you four million uncaring people, I'm Mary Louise Moss, from Escanaba, Michigan, and I like your town, and I want to stay here. Won't you please pay some slight attention to me. No one knows I'm here except ...
— Buttered Side Down • Edna Ferber

... "The castle has thrown its shadow upon the cottage over long. For three hundred years my folk have swinked and sweated, day in and day out, to keep the wine on the lord's table and the harness on the lord's back. Let him take off his plates and delve himself, if ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle

... that time were very fond of foot races. They would take off their coats and tie handkerchiefs about their heads before starting. The short breeches they wore were fastened at the knee by bands. When they were going to run a race, they would loosen these bands, and pull off ...
— Stories of American Life and Adventure • Edward Eggleston

... straightway into the thicket to make preparations for moving—to saddle our horses and take off their mufflings, which by this time had nearly blinded them. Poor brutes! they seemed to know that relief ...
— The Scalp Hunters • Mayne Reid

... the door. You can take off my saddle, and put on your side-saddle, and, if you are in a hurry, Sweetbriar can do the distance in half the time that ...
— Dulcibel - A Tale of Old Salem • Henry Peterson

... should stand out in the rain, and, by carrying my candlestick upstairs, she meant to make me understand it. What does it all mean?" he said aloud, roused by the gravity of these circumstances, and rising as he spoke to take off his damp clothes, get into his dressing-gown, and do up his head for the night. Then he returned from the bed to the fireplace, gesticulating, and launching forth in various tones the following sentences, all of which ended in a high falsetto key, ...
— The Vicar of Tours • Honore de Balzac

... handsome. I take off my hat to my life-long friend and comrade, and with my feet together and my fingers spread over my heart, I say, in the language of Alabama, "You do ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... image, I sprang back in a great hurry towards where my gun lay. Then the snake vanished and making sure that it had departed to its hole, which was probably at a distance, I returned to the pool, and once more began to take off the talisman in order to consign it to ...
— She and Allan • H. Rider Haggard

... baby had too many clothes on and said that he must either take some of the clothes off or else she must take away the new perambulator. Well, the little boy had promised his father, who had gone far away on a journey, that nobody should touch the baby, and so he said he would not take off any of the clothes. And when the nurse took away the perambulator the little boy wrote to his father to ask what he should do and his father wrote to him that he would put one of his brothers in charge who would know how to do what the nurse wanted." The Missioner paused to see the effect ...
— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie

... boiling water, a small iron chain, two or three yards long, and then tossing your cask several times round and round so as to get the chain to rub, and act upon every part of the inside head, &c., this will take off the yest, &c. The smoother and evener all brewers' casks are made on their inside the better, as they are thereby the more easily cleaned. Every brewer should be particular in recommending to his customers ...
— The American Practical Brewer and Tanner • Joseph Coppinger

... reduced to the status of simple farmers scarcely able to get enough to restore the expenses of cultivation." In Auvergne,[5208] the taille amounts to four sous on the livre net profit; the collateral taxes and the poll-tax take off four sous three deniers more; the vingtiemes, two sous and three deniers; the contribution to the royal roads, to the free gift, to local charges and the cost of levying, take again one sou one denier, the total being eleven sous and seven deniers on the livre income, ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1 (of 6) - The Ancient Regime • Hippolyte A. Taine

... way direct towards the Water Gate, in which neighbourhood we hoped to fall in with Captain Radford and his party. There were one or two spots in that neighbourhood where I knew we might possibly have time to take off our friars' dresses. Master Overton had been so long accustomed to wear a similar costume, that he was perfectly at home in his; and, though it was much against his will, he followed my example in making the usual signs to the ...
— The Golden Grasshopper - A story of the days of Sir Thomas Gresham • W.H.G. Kingston

... Marget had come up, offering to bind the Black Colonel's wounded arm, and staunch the bleeding, a task which Red Murdo had already begun, only his hands were clumsy at it. Marget made him take off the strip of tartan which he was twisting tightly round the forearm and put her linen handkerchief nearest the wound. This tender and thoughtful attention seemed to soften the field of battle, and presently I found myself picking up the Colonel's ...
— The Black Colonel • James Milne



Words linked to "Take off" :   doff, takeoff, set out, uncase, arithmetic, get going, copy, blaze, sally out, cut off, cypher, undress, start, roar off, slip off, compute, reckon, deduct, carry back, work out, dehorn, withdraw, imitate, leave, figure, get off the ground, simulate, start out, cipher



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com