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Unfold   Listen
verb
Unfold  v. t.  
1.
To open the folds of; to expand; to spread out; as, to unfold a tablecloth. "Unfold thy forehead gathered into frowns."
2.
To open, as anything covered or close; to lay open to view or contemplation; to bring out in all the details, or by successive development; to display; to disclose; to reveal; to elucidate; to explain; as, to unfold one's designs; to unfold the principles of a science. "Unfold the passion of my love."
3.
To release from a fold or pen; as, to unfold sheep.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Unfold" Quotes from Famous Books



... is a thinking mind That in the realm of books can find A treasure surpassing Australian ore, And live with the great and good of yore; The sage's lore and the poet's lay; The glories of empires passed away; The world's great dream will thus unfold And yield a pleasure better ...
— Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul • Various

... unfold For evermore, nor whisper late or soon, The secret that a few slight bars thus hold Imprisoned ...
— Peter Ibbetson • George du Marier et al

... number. It is indeed because of the advantages (in group terms, of course) of such argument as a technical means of adjustment that the legislative bodies survive. Argument under certain conditions is a greater labor-saver than blows, and in it the group interests more fully unfold themselves. But beneath all the argument lies the strength. The arguments go no farther than the strength goes. What the new Russian duma will get, if it survives, will be what the people it solidly ...
— Introduction to the Science of Sociology • Robert E. Park

... if overnight his schedule had again been put in good running order; for, overnight, spring had come, and that was what his schedule called for in Paris. The buds, which until now had hesitated to unfold, trembled forth almost before his eyes under the influence of a sun that this morning blazed in a turquoise sky. Perhaps they had hurried a trifle to ...
— The Triflers • Frederick Orin Bartlett

... distinguished writer appears to betray a consciousness that the subject of his encomiums is not worthy of them, and to endeavour to excuse himself for them to the public. These are his words: 'I have seen your graces and talents unfold themselves from your infancy. At all periods of your life I have received proofs of your uniform and unchanging kindness. If any critic be found to censure the homage I pay you, he must have a heart formed for ingratitude. I am under great obligations to you, Madame, and these obligations ...
— Memoirs And Historical Chronicles Of The Courts Of Europe - Marguerite de Valois, Madame de Pompadour, and Catherine de Medici • Various

... ripples breaking on the sand, Till their continual murmur grew to be A thing of course,—like sunshine and fresh air,— Or like the love which grew into my life, As color into flowers when they unfold. The fluttering foliage and the sighing waves Seemed whispering "BERTHO!" ever in my ear; For BERTHO was my lover, and my heart Could find no other meaning in their sound. I was a princess of that blooming isle; But BERTHO—he was poor! still, not so poor As brave, high-souled, and ...
— The Arctic Queen • Unknown

... hand; but then everybody is not a Ferguson. A pan of water and two thermometers were the tools by which Dr. Black discovered latent heat; and a prism, a lens and a sheet of pasteboard enable Newton to unfold the composition of light and the origin of colors. An eminent foreign savant once called upon Dr. Wollaston, and requested to be shown over his laboratories, in which science had been enriched by so many important discoveries, when the doctor took him into a little study, and, ...
— How to Get on in the World - A Ladder to Practical Success • Major A.R. Calhoon

... in His August Volume, 'From earth have We created you and unto her We will return you and from her will We draw you forth a second time.' "[FN287] Replied the Birdie, "The truth thou hast told in whatso thou dost unfold, but why do I see thee so bent of back?" and rejoined the Trap, "Learn, O my brother, that the cause for this bowing of my back is my frequent standing in prayer by day and my upstanding by night in the service of the King, the Clement, the One, the Prepotent, the Glorious, the Omnipotent; ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... children of slaves were the property of their master, who could dispose of or alienate them like the rest of his property. Is it in such a situation, with such notions, that the sentiments of nature unfold themselves, or habits of education become mild and peaceful? We must not attribute to causes inadequate or altogether without force, effects which require to explain them a reference to more influential causes; and even if these slighter causes had ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon

... to Rome!—you my pupil, unto whom I meant to unfold all the glorious secrets of my art! Olive Rothesay, are you ...
— Olive - A Novel • Dinah Maria Craik, (AKA Dinah Maria Mulock)

... that I was called upon to unfold more particularly to my wife the cynical estimate of the case which I entertained in my secret soul, especially in view of the fact that the committee which had waited upon me comprised not merely politicians, but some of our best citizens. Although ...
— The Opinions of a Philosopher • Robert Grant

... atelier and the naive demands of the Oriental, with an unhappy photographer caught between and wriggling. The situation was really monstrous, the fatuous rejection of all that fine scheming and exquisite manipulation, and it did not grow less so as Mr. Kauffer continued to unfold it. Armour had not, apparently, proceeded to the scene of his labours without instructions. In the pig-sticking delineation he had been specially told that the Maharajah and the pig were to be in the middle, with the rest nowhere and nothing ...
— The Pool in the Desert • Sara Jeannette Duncan

... until in the afternoon they reached a place where the valley seemed to flatten and spread, a wide and beautiful mountain prospect opening out before them. After a time, at the head of a long stretch of water, as both boats were running along side by side, they saw suddenly unfold before them the spectacle of a wide, green flood, beyond which rose a wedgelike range of lofty mountains, the inner peaks of which ...
— The Young Alaskans in the Rockies • Emerson Hough

... tuberose and vanilla. After the bud appears the growth is very rapid, often two or three inches a day—that is, in the height of the stalk, the flower expanding proportionately. When fully grown it begins to unfold its charms as the twilight deepens into night, and reaches perfect maturity about an hour before midnight: at three o'clock its glory is already beginning to wane, though scarcely perceptibly; but at dawn it is fading rapidly, and by sun-rise only a wilted, ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 29. August, 1873. • Various

... combination! Undoubtedly, to unfold the influences which had led to it would take months instead of minutes, and occupy volumes rather than sentences. I think however, that we reckon too much on national rivalry, or national animosity, when we seek to explain it, although ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various

... cypress weeps upon thy tomb: But when the stars unfold their leaves Amid their bow'rs of purple gloom, More fervently my spirit grieves; And as the rainbow sheds its light In fairy hues upon the sea, So this cold world appears more bright When pensive ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 574 - Vol. XX, No. 574. Saturday, November 3, 1832 • Various

... with an unexpected and powerful harmonic progression. The work is singularly deficient in strong sustained choruses. "Awake the harp" is certainly very much the best; for "The heavens are telling" is little better than Gounod's "Unfold, ye everlasting portals" until the end, where it is saved by the tremendous climax; and "Achieved is the glorious work" is mostly mechanical, with occasional moments of life. As for the finale, it is of course light opera. On the whole the songs are the most delightful ...
— Old Scores and New Readings • John F. Runciman

... depot for the trade of that infinitely valuable river, the Gambia, which, for variety of natural productions, is perhaps not to be excelled by any other in the world; only requiring the hand of industry and intelligence to fertilize and unfold. ...
— Observations Upon The Windward Coast Of Africa • Joseph Corry

... may forget that she is neither young nor handsome; for the absence of these claims to attention does not expose her to be neglected by the male sex. In England, the elderly and the ugly "could a tale unfold" of the naivete with which men evince their sense of the importance of youth and beauty, and their oblivion of the presence of those who ...
— The Idler in France • Marguerite Gardiner

... been the work of a departed prophet and seer of his island, who, by those hieroglyphic marks, had written out on his body a complete theory of the heavens and the earth, and a mystical treatise on the art of attaining truth; so that Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle to unfold; a wondrous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even himself could read, though his own live heart beat against them; and these mysteries were therefore destined in the end to moulder away with the living parchment whereon they were inscribed, and so be unsolved to the last. And this thought ...
— Moby Dick; or The Whale • Herman Melville

... Nature seems to concentrate her energies on the wing, making the safety of a bird a point to be looked after first; and while the body is covered with down, and no signs of feathers are visible, the wing-quills sprout and unfold, and in an incredibly short time the young make fair ...
— Wake-Robin • John Burroughs

... to his Sad questioning replied, "Those armies are outnumbered far By legions at our side:" Then up from starry sphere to sphere, Was borne the Prophet's prayer, "Unfold to his blind sight, O God! ...
— Indian Legends and Other Poems • Mary Gardiner Horsford

... fire-engine be rendered tenfold more mighty for safety or for destruction, although as yet I have applied it only to the blissful operation of lifting water, thus removing the curse of it where it is a curse, and carrying it where the parched soil cries for its help to unfold the treasures of its thirsty bosom. My fire-engine shall yet uplift the nation of England above the heads of all richest and most powerful nations on the face of the whole earth. For when the troubles ...
— St. George and St. Michael • George MacDonald

... was not one of personal feeling; that it was a national question; and that in discussing it they should be willing to sacrifice all personal resentments, all private wrongs. He then proceeded to unfold the proposition that America had everything out of which to make a great ...
— Patrick Henry • Moses Coit Tyler

... whole party present engaged to follow my standard, whenever I have permission from authority to unfold it," said the Baron, bowing to Lady Madeleine: "and lest, on cool reflection, I shall not possess influence enough to procure the appointment, I shall, like a skilful orator, take advantage of your feelings, which gratitude for this excellent plan must have ...
— Vivian Grey • The Earl of Beaconsfield

... sons and Paradise, That he will fain prepare. From him the lord of men at length The boon he seeks shall gain, And see four sons of boundless strength His royal line maintain, Thus did the godlike saint of old The will of fate declare, And all that should befall unfold Amid the sages there. O Prince, supreme of men, go thou, Consult thy holy guide, And win, to aid thee in thy vow, This Brahman to ...
— Hindu Literature • Epiphanius Wilson

... grease to collect and cause a stoppage. To make the inside of the hole even, a piece of 1/2-inch pipe can be used in place of the bending irons. To cut out the oval from a piece of paper to fit the joint, fold the paper and cut out one-half of the oval. Now unfold the paper and the complete oval is obtained. The measurements of the oval are taken from Fig. 30, 1-1/8 inches each side of the branch lengthwise of the run. These two lines are connected with a curved line as shown. This curved line ...
— Elements of Plumbing • Samuel Dibble

... truths which flow from these I have tried to unfold in a treatise ("On the World, or on Light"), which certain considerations prevent me from publishing. This I concluded three years ago, and had begun to revise it for the printer when I learned that certain persons to whom I defer had disapproved an opinion ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books, Volume XIII. - Religion and Philosophy • Various

... the dinner, which was nearly ready. Tommy at first went with his sister Caroline to look at the animal, and as soon as he had left off admiring it, he began, as usual, to tease it; first he poked its eyes with a stick, then he tried to unfold his tail, but the animal flapped, and he ran away. At last he was trying to put his stick into the creature's mouth, when it raised its large claw, and caught him by the wrist, squeezing him so ...
— Masterman Ready - The Wreck of the "Pacific" • Captain Frederick Marryat

... mind is to do well. She bestows her year's wages at next fair; and, in choosing her garments, counts no bravery in the world like decency. The garden and beehive are all her physic and chirurgery, and she lives the longer for it. She dares go alone and unfold sheep in the night, and fears no manner of ill because she means none; yet, to say truth, she is never alone, for she is still accompanied with old songs, honest thoughts, and prayers, but short ones; yet they have their efficacy, in that they are not palled with ensuing idle cogitations. ...
— Character Writings of the 17th Century • Various

... suggested to you in the preceding lessons. It is all a matter of attention, application, patience, exercise and practice. I may say, however, that the strong desire and wish for the perception of future events, held firmly in mind during the practicing and exercising, will tend to unfold and develop the clairvoyant faculties in this particular direction. Strong desire, and earnest attention in the desired direction, will do much to cultivate, develop and unfold any ...
— Clairvoyance and Occult Powers • Swami Panchadasi

... is designed to be used in Bible Study Classes in churches, in communities, in academies, in colleges. The author has endeavored to furnish a text book of outlines and questions that shall unfold the general contents of the Word of God. Its primary aim is to impart a swift and comprehensive acquaintanceship with the material of the books ...
— A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible - Second Edition • Frank Nelson Palmer

... and pollutions. And yet I saw nothing of slavery in its most vulgar and repulsive forms. I saw it in the city, among the fashionable and the honorable, where it was garnished by refinement, and decked out for show. A few facts will unfold the state of society in the circle with which I was familiar far better than any general assertions ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... heard her with sweetness unfold How that pity was due to—a dove: That it ever attended the bold; And she called it the sister of love. But her words such a pleasure convey, So much I her accents adore, Let her speak, and whatever she say, Methinks I ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 77, March, 1864 • Various

... has the whispering breath of gentle morn Bid Nature's voice and Nature's beauty rise; While orient Phoebus, with unborrow'd hues, Clothes the waked loveliness which all night slept In heavenly drapery I Darkness is fled. Now flowers unfold their beauties to the sun, And, blushing, kiss the beam he sends to wake them— The striped carnation, and the guarded rose, The vulgar wallflower, and smart gillyflower, The polyanthus mean—the dapper daisy, Sweet-William, and sweet marjoram—and ...
— Scarborough and the Critic • Sheridan

... and unstudied development of character. Shakespeare had more magnanimity than any other poet, and he has shown more of it in this play than in any other. There is no attempt to force an interest: everything is left for time and circumstances to unfold. The attention is excited without effort, the incidents succeed each other as matters of course, the characters think and speak and act just as they might do, if left entirely to themselves. There is no set purpose, no straining at a point. The observations are suggested by the passing scene—the ...
— Characters of Shakespeare's Plays • William Hazlitt

... began to unfold themselves, Lucille's ill-temper began to abate. Her interest was awakened, and at last she became pleased, ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 2, January, 1851 • Various

... the bloodthirsty savage Man's vast spirit strength shall unfold; And tales of red warfare and ravage Shall seem like ghost stories of old. For the booming of guns and the rattle Of carnage and conflict shall cease, And the bugle-call, leading to battle, Shall change ...
— Poems of Sentiment • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... to season his admiration until he had taken a most solemn oath, by the sacrament of the Eucharist, never to reveal a syllable of what he was about to hear. This done, and the royal curiosity excited almost beyond endurance, De Rosny began to, unfold the stupendous schemes which had been, concerted between Elizabeth and Henry at Dover, and which formed the secret object of his present embassy. Feeling that the king was most malleable in the theological part of his structure, the wily envoy ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... must be made up by the standard of those attributes." He then proceeded to state, that on receiving their invitation to attend that meeting, it had been his intention to avail himself of the opportunity to unfold to them the professions, principles, and practices, of the federal administration of these United States, under the successive Presidents invested with executive power, from the day when he took his seat as their representative in Congress to the ...
— Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. • Josiah Quincy

... Gladstone's exposition of the evidence of Josephus was not more trustworthy. I proceed to show that my previsions have been fully justified. I doubt if controversial literature contains anything more piquant than the story I have to unfold. ...
— Collected Essays, Volume V - Science and Christian Tradition: Essays • T. H. Huxley

... picnic dinner the previous day rendered the preparation of the midday meal unusually easy, and the girls gathered at the dinner-table less eager to sample the pressed meat and potato chips than to examine the folded slips of paper placed under each plate. Peggy was the first to unfold hers. ...
— Peggy Raymond's Vacation - or Friendly Terrace Transplanted • Harriet L. (Harriet Lummis) Smith

... he that can behold The well-spring whence all good doth rise, Happy is he that can unfold The bands with which the earth him ties. The Thracian poet whose sweet song Performed his wife's sad obsequies, And forced the woods to run along When he his mournful tunes did play, Whose powerful music was so strong That it could make the rivers stay; The fearful ...
— The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy • Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

... pronoun or substitute; 3. The adjective, attribute, or attributive; 4. The verb; 5. The adverb; 6. The preposition; 7. The connective or conjunction; 8. The exclamation or interjection." In his Rudiments of English Grammar, published in 1811, "to unfold the true principles of the language," his parts of speech were seven; "viz. 1. Names or nouns; 2. Substitutes or pronouns; 3. Attributes or adjectives; 4. Verbs, with their participles; 5. Modifiers or adverbs; 6. Prepositions; ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... because I do not wish to be known to Psyche. 'Tis my heart, my heart alone, I wish to unfold; nothing more than the sweet raptures of this keen passion, which her charms excite within it. To express its gentle pining, and to hide what may be from those eyes that impose on me their will, I have assumed this ...
— Psyche • Moliere

... rises over the surface after the first few hours of ebb have passed. But far beyond its base, where the sea never falls, green meadows of zostera flourish in the depths of the water, where they unfold their colourless flowers, unfurnished with petals, and ripen their farinaceous seeds, that, wherever they rise to the surface, seem very susceptible of frost. I have seen the shores strewed with a line of green zostera, with its spikes charged with seed, after ...
— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller

... not speak mair plainly," answered Elspeth, "without confessing her ain fraud,and she would have submitted to be torn by wild horses, rather than unfold what she had done; and if she had still lived, so would I for her sake. They were stout hearts the race of Glenallan, male and female, and sae were a' that in auld times cried their gathering-word of Clochnabenthey stood shouther to shouthernae ...
— The Antiquary, Complete • Sir Walter Scott

... need not report the catalogue. Enough, that he proceeded to unfold (dwelling with an emphatic and precise description of each article in turn) the immense inventory of wares and merchandises with which he was about to establish. The assortment was various enough. There were pen-knives, and jack-knives, and clasp-knives, and dirk-knives, horn and wooden combs, ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

... his discourse; and the fact of his speaking direct from his own resources, and not borrowing or stealing from books—here a dry fact, and there a trite phrase, and elsewhere a hackneyed opinion —ensured a freshness, as welcome as it was rare. Before my eyes, too, his disposition seemed to unfold another phase; to pass to a fresh day: to rise ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... human hands have tremblingly to lift the napkin from the veiled face (how they must have thrilled as they did it, wondering what nameless horror they might see in the eyes that had looked on the inner chamber of death), and human help has to unfold the grave-clothes from the tightly swathed and stumbling limbs, 'Loose him, and ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII • Alexander Maclaren

... And why did you do it? I have heard of an elixir to counteract the effects of time, but your recipe seems to work the other way—to make time rush forward at two hundred times his usual rate, in one place, while he jogs on at his usual gait elsewhere. Unfold your mystery, magician. Seriously, Ken, how on ...
— David Poindexter's Disappearance and Other Tales • Julian Hawthorne

... stern he watched the scene unfold as they approached the mainland, though the new moon gave very ...
— Darry the Life Saver - The Heroes of the Coast • Frank V. Webster

... lady replied in amiable speech, but with sleepy eyes, and the Monk began to lift and unfold a wrapping. As the Cavalier' drew it into his own possession, and, agreeably to his gesture, the Monk and he sat down side by side, he said, in a ...
— The Grandissimes • George Washington Cable

... had a little intuitive skill in drawing, and the exercise of the talent was a gratification. It pleased him to see the semblance of face or form unfold before him. It was a kind of play, a ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 4 (of 14) - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Painters • Elbert Hubbard

... prevailed on to come forward and speak to her, but stood wrapping their little heads up in the corner of their mother's apron, taking a sly peep at the strangers, when they thought they were not observed. Helen at last recollected her basket, and asked John to give it to her. As soon as she began to unfold the snow-white napkin in which her present was wrapped, the little heads gradually approached nearer and nearer to the basket; and when Helen took out a few cakes of parliament(a kind of gingerbread very common in Scotland), and gave each of them one, the little creatures ...
— The Eskdale Herd-boy • Mrs Blackford

... ye sailors bold, Wot plows upon the sea; To you I mean for to unfold My mournful histo-ree. So pay attention to my song, And quick-el-ly shall appear, How innocently, all ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, August 7, 1841 • Various

... the paternal roof, weary of my role. The fatted calf awaited me. Nevertheless, I am sick again for the unhallowed swine-husks. Meet me in 'Frisco about the end of February, and I will a glorious proposition unfold. Don't fail. I must have a partner and I want you. Look for a ...
— The Trail of '98 - A Northland Romance • Robert W. Service

... "Depot Ground," so that the fat gentleman saw it without seeming to have had his attention called to it; then Plausaby, Esq., looked meditatively at the ground set apart for "College," and seemed to be making a mental calculation. Then Plausaby proceeded to unfold the many advantages of the place, and Albert was a pleased listener; he had never before suspected that Metropolisville had prospects so entirely dazzling. He could not doubt the statements of the bland Plausaby, who said these things ...
— The Mystery of Metropolisville • Edward Eggleston

... would, for he wants the estate next to hisn, and has to take the gall that owns it, or he won't get it. I pity them galls, I do upon my soul. It's a hard fate, that, as Minster sais, in his pretty talk, to bud, unfold, bloom, wither, and die on the parent stock, and have no one to pluck the rose, and put it in his ...
— The Attache - or, Sam Slick in England, Complete • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... her plan was made, even to the very words in which she meant to unfold it to Johanna, and the very form in which Johanna should write the letter, she allowed herself a few brief minutes to think of him—Robert Lyon—to call up his eyes, his voice, his smile; to count, for the hundreth time, how many months—one less than ...
— Mistress and Maid • Dinah Craik (aka: Miss Mulock)

... 'strike the trunk with it, and a keyhole will appear. Do not be afraid to unlock that magic door. Slip in your hand, and you will bring out a wonderful palette. I have not time now to tell you half its virtues, but they will soon unfold themselves. You must be very careful to paint with colors from that palette every day. On this depends the success of the charm. You will find that it will soon give grace to your figures and beauty to your coloring; and I promise you that, if you do not break the spell, you shall not only ...
— Wonder-Box Tales • Jean Ingelow

... Unfold us the burden of your song, Grasshoppers, chirping so Tender and sweet the whole day long! Is it of joy or woe, The music that breathes from each blade of grass ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 12, No. 32, November, 1873 • Various

... inferiority to the coming man, who, I assure you, will never tire of life while anything that God has made remains to be studied. As the mind expands, new wonders and new beauties in creation will unfold themselves and your race will learn to look back with pity upon your present age, with ...
— Daybreak: A Romance of an Old World • James Cowan

... refreshed. Something fluttered to the ground. I thought it was a leaf from a white rose above me, but I looked. At my feet lay a piece of paper. I took it up. It had been folded very hastily, and had no address, but who could have a better right to unfold it than I! It might be nothing; it might be a letter. Should I open it? Should I not rather seize the opportunity of setting things right between my heart and my uncle by taking it to him unopened? Only, if it ...
— The Flight of the Shadow • George MacDonald

... and unwittingly composed herself to listen to the sweet story so often told, and yet so hard to tell. Moor meant to woo her very gently, for he believed that love was new to her. He had planned many graceful illustrations for his tale, and rounded many smoothly-flowing sentences in which to unfold it. But the emotions are not well bred, and when the moment came nature conquered art. No demonstration seemed beautiful enough to grace the betrayal of his passion, no language eloquent enough to tell it, no ...
— Moods • Louisa May Alcott

... intoxicating drink called pulque. The sprouting of the stalk takes place in November or December; but the beautiful cluster of flowers, for which it is so much admired, does not form at its top till February. In this last month, the monster leaf that envelops the hampe begins gradually to unfold itself, exposing to view a slender stalk, higher than a man on horseback, with arms extended. On this stalk grow the flowers. Such is the century plant—in botanical ...
— Mexico and its Religion • Robert A. Wilson

... love. No tear bedewed her eye, no trembling seized her frame, no throb of rapture lifted the snowy mantle that hid her bosom. Her body was bent slightly forward, her snowy lips were parted like a water-lily, about to unfold itself to the face of day, and her arms were extended as if they would press to her heart, all icy as it was, the noble warrior who ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones

... And not far off, with business look And pen in hand o'er ponderous book, I see another friend of youth Noted for probity and truth; 'Tis Thomas Donelly, worthy man! Whom now with memory's eye I scan. Still as the mist of memory clears, I meet the men of other years; Another page I now unfold, And Captain Bolton I behold, Or Major Bolton, if you will, Who lived upon the "Major's Hill," Which got his rank and bears it still. It used to be in days gone by, "The Colonel's Hill," a rank more high, And worthy of the ancient trees, Whose foliage rustled in the breeze, ...
— Recollections of Bytown and Its Old Inhabitants • William Pittman Lett

... nevertheless, they then began to play a part not only in writing but in public speech, which was a very novel part for women to play in America; and after the Civil War had settled some of what seemed to be the most difficult legal questions of our system the life of the nation began not only to unfold but ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V • Ida Husted Harper

... And that well might Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel Fly to the court of England, and unfold His message ere he come, that a swift blessing May soon return to this our suffering country Under ...
— Shakespearean Tragedy - Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth • A. C. Bradley

... instructor is of the first importance. Nothing is more absurd than for a man who cannot ride well in a side-saddle, to try to unfold to a lady the mysteries of seat. Such men, instead of getting into a side-saddle and showing their pupils "how to do it," generally attempt to conceal their ignorance by the use of stock phrases. If asked "Why?" ...
— The Horsewoman - A Practical Guide to Side-Saddle Riding, 2nd. Ed. • Alice M. Hayes

... its metaphors and illustrations, some inaccuracies of expression or misstatements of scientific facts, would throw discredit upon the essential religious dogmas and doctrines which it is its object to state and unfold, are, to say the least, extremely disingenuous, if not ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 6, Issue 35, September, 1860 • Various

... Otranto; the efforts of those members of the committee, who remained faithful to their trust; the debates on the capitulation of Paris, and all the collateral facts, connected with these different circumstances, had been totally misrepresented; These Memoirs establish or unfold the truth. They bring to light the conduct of those members of the committee, who were supposed to be the dupes or accomplices of Fouche; and that of the marshals, the army, and the chambers. They contain also the correspondence of the plenipotentiaries, and the instructions ...
— Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815, Vol. I • Pierre Antoine Edouard Fleury de Chaboulon

... the bronze pillars that this Fairy Curragh,[A] The Centuries thorough, glimmering uphold. Through all the World the fairest land of any Is this whereon the many blooms unfold. ...
— A Celtic Psaltery • Alfred Perceval Graves

... game that his master was pursuing and turn it back; and he would guard any object he was desired to "watch" with unflinching constancy. But it would occupy too much space and time to enumerate all Crusoe's qualities and powers. His biography will unfold them. ...
— The Dog Crusoe and his Master • R.M. Ballantyne

... that the new academicians shall complete the whole imperfect scheme, in order that the world may see that, while so many men of genius still exist among us, the noblest work which was ever yet conceived on earth has not been left unfinished. He has commissioned me to write to you and unfold his views, begging you at the same time to favour him by communicating to himself or to me what your intentions were, or those of the late Pope Clement, with regard to the name and title of the chapel; moreover, to inform us what designs you ...
— The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti • John Addington Symonds

... say; but in these days, when the excursion train is applied to wisdom; when, having little enough, we try to make it more by pulling it about; when secretaries urge us, treasurers dun us, programs unfold out of every mail—where is the man who, guileless-eyed, can look in his brother's face; can declare upon his honour that he has never been a delegate, never belonged to anything, never been nominated, elected, ...
— Crowds - A Moving-Picture of Democracy • Gerald Stanley Lee

... were stirring phrases indeed—they were well worth living to hear, and well worth dying to deserve; they are for you to treasure up, and your children yet unborn to hear from your lips. When you unfold those banners, you look upon them as the memorials of former days, and in centuries yet to come they will be memorials of your country's renown, of your country's prosperity, and of your country's peace. On these grounds I hold that the Christian soldier is an instrument of good to the nation at ...
— The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock • Ferdinand Brock Tupper

... God spake in words which said What future ages would unfold, The soil on which he made his bed Was ...
— The Mountain Spring And Other Poems • Nannie R. Glass

... and native ease she charms, And bears the Horn of Plenty in her arms. Five rival Swains their tender cares unfold, 250 And watch with eye askance ...
— The Botanic Garden. Part II. - Containing The Loves of the Plants. A Poem. - With Philosophical Notes. • Erasmus Darwin

... I was sauntering along the quays, I encountered Myers. He was much disguised, but he knew me and stopped me. He told me that he was engaged in a scheme by which a rapid fortune was to be made; that he could not then unfold it; but that, if I would ship on board a vessel with him, he would explain it when we were at sea. My impulse was to refuse; but I was tired and weary, and consented to enter a tavern with him. He there plied me with liquor till all my scruples ...
— Salt Water - The Sea Life and Adventures of Neil D'Arcy the Midshipman • W. H. G. Kingston

... the moving scenes through which it has been bandied. Yes! it has known the stress of many journeys; yet has it never (you would say, seeing it) received its baptism of paste: it has not one label on it. And there, indeed, is the tragedy that I shall unfold. ...
— Yet Again • Max Beerbohm

... unfold; Declare the terms that I am to obey; My will to yours submissively I mould, And from your law my feet shall never stray. Would you I die, to silent grief a prey? Then count me even now as dead ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... looking studiously for what he never found, he would stroll, watching the roses open, fruit budding on the walls, sunlight brightening the oak leaves and saplings in the coppice, watching the water-lily leaves unfold and glisten, and the silvery young corn of the one wheat field; listening to the starlings and skylarks, and the Alderney cows chewing the cud, flicking slow their tufted tails; and every one of these fine days ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... have learnt the beauty of little mossy banks, and tiny leaves, and flecks of cloud, with what a fulness the glories of Claude, or Ruysdael, or Berghem, will unfold themselves to you! You must know Nature or you cannot know Art. And when you do know Nature you will only prize Art ...
— Daily Thoughts - selected from the writings of Charles Kingsley by his wife • Charles Kingsley

... abbot, who had told him to inquire concerning all things of old people expert in the ways of life, he thought of confiding his case to the said lady d'Amboise. But he made first awkwardly and shyly certain twists and turns, finding no terms in which to unfold his case. And the lady was also perfectly silent, since she was outrageously struck with the blindness, deafness and voluntary paralysis of the lord of Braguelongne; and said to herself, walking by the side of this delicate morsel, a young innocent of whom she did not ...
— Droll Stories, Volume 2 • Honore de Balzac

... thoughtfulness; her heavy dark lashes lay on her pure waxen cheeks like the dark fringe of some tropical flower. Her form, in its drooping outlines, scarcely yet showed the full development of womanhood, which after-years might unfold into the ripe fulness of her countrywomen. Her whole attitude and manner were those of an exquisitively sensitive and highly organized being, just struggling into the life of some mysterious new inner birth,—into the sense of powers of feeling and being hitherto ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, Issue 45, July, 1861 • Various

... acquainted with them from some outside source. She knew very well that if her father went up to the Castle to borrow money it would be lent, or rather given, freely enough; but she also knew that the lender would almost certainly take the opportunity, the very favourable opportunity, to unfold his wishes as regards the borrower's daughter. The one thing would naturally lead to the other—the promise of her father's support of Owen's suit would be the consideration for the money received. How gladly that support would be given ...
— Beatrice • H. Rider Haggard

... coming years, with their beauty and defects. Before I leave the Pyrenees these written pages will fly to Germany, a great section of my life; I myself shall follow, and a new and unknown section will begin.—What may it unfold?—I know not, but thankfully, hopefully, I look forward. My whole life, the bright as well as the gloomy days, led to the best. It is like a voyage to some known point,—I stand at the rudder, I have chosen my path,—but God rules the ...
— The True Story of My Life • Hans Christian Andersen

... guess—wrong again. Finally Dolly was induced to unfold her pinafore, and inside lay ...
— A Bunch of Cherries - A Story of Cherry Court School • L. T. Meade

... reader, that I cannot unfold to thee all the particulars of my political intrigue. I am, by the very share which fell to my lot, bound over to the strictest secrecy, as to its nature, and the characters of the chief agents in its execution. Suffice it to say, that the greater part of my time was, though furtively, employed ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... for the salvation of our race; and it was eminently adapted for the education of such a people. The teachers could say, with a beloved co-laborer on Mount Lebanon, "To the Scriptures we give increased attention; they do more to unfold and expand the intellectual powers, and to create careful and honest thinkers, than all the sciences we teach." It is also most efficient in freeing mind and heart from those erroneous views that are opposed ...
— Woman And Her Saviour In Persia • A Returned Missionary

... your astonishment, I will Unfold some private passages of state, Of which you are yet ignorant: Know, first, That this Polydamus, who reigns, unjustly ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Volume 4 (of 18) - Almanzor And Almahide, Marriage-a-la-Mode, The Assignation • John Dryden

... of women, Marya Dmitrievna. Unfortunately, there are some of fickle character ... well, and it's a question of age, also; then, again, the rules have not been inculcated in their childhood." (Sergyei Petrovitch pulled a checked blue handkerchief out of his pocket, and began to unfold it).—"Such women exist, of course," (Sergyei Petrovitch raised a corner of the handkerchief to his eyes, one after the other),—"but, generally speaking, if we take into consideration, that is.... There is an unusual amount of ...
— A Nobleman's Nest • Ivan Turgenieff

... while neither spoke, except in kisses—love's own language. Every moment the mystery seemed to grow upon Doris, to unfold as well, to pass the line of girlhood, to accept the crown of a woman's life. It had been very simply sweet. Some other woman might have made a rather tragic episode of her two lovers. Doris pitied them sincerely, but they both had the deepest ...
— A Little Girl in Old Boston • Amanda Millie Douglas

... the fitful lark Unfold his pinion to the stream; The pensive watch-dog's mellow bark O'ershades yon cottage like a dream: The playful duck and warbling bee Hop gayly ...
— A Nonsense Anthology • Collected by Carolyn Wells

... neither your destiny nor your self-form. You can only develop it. You can only stick to your own very self, and NEVER betray it. And by so sticking, you develop the one and only phoenix of your own self, and you unfold your own destiny, as a dandelion unfolds itself into a dandelion, and not into a ...
— Aaron's Rod • D. H. Lawrence

... proceed to quote and unfold five distinct passages, not yet brought forward, from the epistle, each of which proves that we are not mistaken in attributing ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... really creates, any more than the gardener creates an oak tree by the planting of an acorn. The gardener provides the necessary conditions in which the oak, already miraculously pent within the acorn, can unfold and develop. So the musician also provides the necessary conditions in which the spirit of Music can blossom and bear fruit. He need take to himself no vast amount of credit, for he is but a trustee of that which has been lent to him: he neither creates ...
— Spirit and Music • H. Ernest Hunt

... not my eyes as dazzled by the crown as yours were by the robes? Why did we leave the green hills of Osia? What destiny writes, fate must unfold. And oh, the dreams I had of being great! I am fifty-eight and you are seventy. And look; I am a broken twig, and you tower above me like an ancient oak, and as strong." To the chancellor he said: ...
— The Puppet Crown • Harold MacGrath

... idle life. The old man had adopted the child's amusements, and the child had fallen in with the old man's humor; there was a sort of tacit agreement between two kinds of feebleness, between failing powers well-nigh spent and powers just about to unfold themselves. ...
— The Magic Skin • Honore de Balzac

... shines no golden roof, no ivory stair, No king exalted in a stately chair, Girt with attendants, or by heralds styled, But straw and hay enwrap a speechless child; Yet Sabae's lords before this babe unfold Their treasures, offering incense, myrrh, and gold. The crib becomes an altar: therefore dies No ox nor sheep; for in their fodder lies The Prince of Peace, who, thankful for his bed, Destroys those rites in which their blood ...
— England's Antiphon • George MacDonald

... Bosphorus. Hekatonymus, after apologizing for the menacing insinuations of his former speech, and protesting that he had no other object in view except to point out the safest and easiest plan of route for the army, began to unfold the insuperable difficulties of a march through Paphlagonia. The very entrance into the country must be achieved through a narrow aperture in the mountains, which it was impossible to force if occupied by the enemy. Even assuming ...
— The Two Great Retreats of History • George Grote

... three of a kind, four of a kind or three in a sequence. Every set has a scoring value, and the players add their scores and settle after every hand. A player may win with a score as low as 22 points or scores may run to 380,928 points. These possibilities will unfold as the following pages on the details of ...
— Pung Chow - The Game of a Hundred Intelligences. Also known as Mah-Diao, Mah-Jong, Mah-Cheuk, Mah-Juck and Pe-Ling • Lew Lysle Harr

... wife, therefore half-sister to the charming Burney girls. She was a young lady who could let herself go, in act as well as on paper, and withal, as Fanny judged her, "flighty, ridiculous, uncommon, lively, comical, entertaining, frank, and undisguised"—or because of it—she did contrive to unfold her panting and abounding young self more thoroughly than the many times more expert. You have her here in the pangs of a love-affair, of how long standing I don't know, but now evidently in a bad state of miss-fire. It was to end in elopement, post-chaise, clandestine marriage, in right ...
— In a Green Shade - A Country Commentary • Maurice Hewlett



Words linked to "Unfold" :   butterfly, deform, uncross, blossom out, stretch, undo, grass, exfoliate, unfolding, unveil, change shape, spread out, change form, spread, splay, blossom forth, blossom, bring out, stretch out, divaricate, fold, extend, uncover, open



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