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Waft   Listen
verb
Waft  v. i.  To be moved, or to pass, on a buoyant medium; to float. "And now the shouts waft near the citadel."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Waft" Quotes from Famous Books



... Bible on my breast, For a moment let the warning bugles cease; As the century is closing I am going to my rest, Lord, lettest Thou Thy servant go in peace. But loud through all the bugles rings a cadence in mine ear, And on the winds my hopes of peace are strowed. Those winds that waft the voices that already I can hear Of the ...
— An Anthology of Australian Verse • Bertram Stevens

... world grown so old and stricken in years, that, like King David, it gets no heat? Why loiters, where lingers, the beautiful, calm-breathing June? Rosebuds are bound in her trailing hair, and the sweet of her garments always used to waft a scented ...
— Gala-days • Gail Hamilton

... disease shoots thro' my languid frame, And checks the zeal for wisdom and for fame. Now droops fond hope, by Disappointment cross'd; Chill'd by neglect, each sanguine wish is lost. O'er the weak mound stern Ocean's billows ride, And waft destruction in with every tide; While Mars, descending from his crimson car, Fans with fierce hands the ...
— Translations of German Poetry in American Magazines 1741-1810 • Edward Ziegler Davis

... and uttered O how oft, Hath Galatea spoke! waft some of them, Ye winds, I pray you, ...
— The Bucolics and Eclogues • Virgil

... snow-topped hills! Land where are the graves of my father and mother! How pines and sickens the heart of the exile for thee! O happy they who died beneath the sword or flame, for they knew not the lonely home-longing of the exile. Ah! ye golden fruits! One fragrant breath of thee is as a waft of the joys of my youth! Are ye foretastes of the fruits of Paradise, the true home to which I may yet come, though I may never, never see the towers and hills ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... dock give cheers to those on board, and they, in return, wave their handkerchiefs, kiss their hands—aye, from the cabin to the steerage-passengers, and the forecastle (those not employed), all waft their good-by greetings to those who are left behind, not knowing whether they may be ...
— The Boy Nihilist - or, Young America in Russia • Allan Arnold

... coast, And in a peaceful grave my corpse compose; Or, if a nearer way your mother shows, Without whose aid you durst not undertake This frightful passage o'er the Stygian lake, Lend to this wretch your hand, and waft him o'er To the sweet banks of yon forbidden shore." Scarce had he said, the prophetess began: "What hopes delude thee, miserable man? Think'st thou, thus unintomb'd, to cross the floods, To view the Furies and infernal gods, And visit, without ...
— The Aeneid • Virgil

... brown. As it withers, the many-pointed leaf of the white bryony and the bine as it shrivels, in like manner, do their part. The white thistle-down, which stays on the bursting thistles because there is no wind to waft it away, reflects it; the white is pushed aside by the colour that the ...
— Nature Near London • Richard Jefferies

... spring, still lingering, with bright eyes of dew,' watched over her. Then, suddenly, behind these richer scents, I caught a sweeter, wilder tang than anything they contained, and turning, saw that the pines were closer than I knew. A waft of something purer, fresher, reached my nostrils on a little noiseless wind, as, leaning across the gate, I turned my back upon the cultivated grounds and gazed into a region of more ...
— The Garden of Survival • Algernon Blackwood

... the double announcement quite calmly. The two things so often went together—it was the grey and gold warp and waft of war with which people had ...
— The Hermit of Far End • Margaret Pedler

... her warlike brother on the seas His waving streamers to the wind displays, And vows for his return, with vain devotion, pays. Ah, generous youth! that wish forbear, The winds too soon will waft thee here: Slack all thy sails, and fear to come, Alas, thou know'st not thou art wreck'd at home! No more shalt thou behold thy sister's face, Thou hast already had her last embrace. But look aloft, and if thou ken'st from far Among the Pleiads a new-kindled ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol II - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden

... to waft themselves to me," said Jim modestly. "Anyhow, the quarantine station is a jolly little place for a holiday, and the sea view is delightful." He broke off, laughing, and suddenly flung his arm round her shoulders in the dusk of the deck. "I think ...
— Back To Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce

... the harmless Africans to war, and stain their fields with blood: you keep constant hostile ferment in their territories, in order to procure captives for your uses; some you purchase with a few trifling articles, and waft to distant shores to be made the instruments ...
— Anti-Slavery Opinions before the Year 1800 - Read before the Cincinnati Literary Club, November 16, 1872 • William Frederick Poole

... content with ear-deep melodies [2] To please all profitless, I did not pour Severer strains; of Truth—eternal Truth, Unchanging Justice, universal Love. Such strains awake the soul to loftiest thoughts, Such strains the Blessed Spirits of the Good Waft, grateful incense, to the ...
— Poems • Robert Southey

... Seti ventured much, his son risks still more, and therefore both have required much succor from the Immortals. Rameses is pious, he sacrifices frequently, and loves prayer: we are necessary to him, to waft incense, to slaughter hecatombs, to offer prayers, and to interpret dreams—but we are no longer his advisers. My father, now in Osiris, a worthier high-priest than I, was charged by the Prophets to ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... passed through it, but he lingered there, fancying he could smell the faint sweetness of her presence. Within, the organ was booming softly and in that sound he forgot, for a moment, the necessity for action. The music seemed to be wonderfully complicated with the waft of Henrietta's passage, with his love for her, with all he imagined her to be, but the forgetfulness was only for that moment, and he pushed open ...
— THE MISSES MALLETT • E. H. YOUNG

... attainment! To accomplish seemed no more difficult than to desire. The stream was running his way, and the wind was blowing his way. As surely as the Mississippi goes to the Mexican Gulf, would destiny waft Burr to the ocean of his desire. Imaginations so extravagant, courted in solitude and fed by indolence, served to beguile the days of the long voyage from Fort Massac ...
— A Dream of Empire - Or, The House of Blennerhassett • William Henry Venable

... free," she dropped into the Thames the supplication of Orson Pinnit, keeper of the royal bears, to find more favourable acceptance at Sheerness, or wherever the tide might waft it. ...
— Kenilworth • Sir Walter Scott

... old when the clamor o' Babel's end (All seas were chartless then!) Drove forth the brood, and Solitude Was the newest quest of men. I lay like a gem in a silken sea Unseen, uncoveted, unguessed Till scented winds that waft afar Bore word o' the warm delights there are Where ground-swells sing by Zanzibar Long ...
— The Ivory Trail • Talbot Mundy

... I shall be on the border of the Pacific, and you far out on the Atlantic, approaching England. That day, if I am alive and my sublime discovery is proved and established, I will send you greeting, and my messenger shall deliver it where you are, in the solitudes of the sea; for I will waft a vast sun-spot across the disk like drifting smoke, and you will know it for my love-sign, and will say "Mulberry Sellers throws us a kiss across ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... blest, "I'd feast on beauty a' the night; "Seal'd on her silk-waft faulds to rest, "Till fley'd awa by ...
— Language of Flowers • Kate Greenaway

... not, the big change made in the course, to say nothing of the difference in the weather and temperature, say loudly that your long easterly run is over, and you are bound to the northward again. Soon the south-east trades will take you gently in hand, and waft you pleasurably upward to the line again, unless you should be so unfortunate as to meet one of the devastating meteors known as "cyclones" in its gyration across the Indian Ocean. After losing the trade, ...
— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen

... four times a day, going round and round, to the wrath of my coachman, who got sick of telling me that I was ruining my horses. I was happy to see her watch for the moment that I passed, and waft me a kiss by putting her pretty fingers to ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... all! Why, none of our quickest steam-pinnaces can overhaul them when they're going on a wind, for even with the lightest breeze their sails, being made of twilled calico and light, waft them along as if by magic. There are twenty that escape us for every one we catch, as, in the busy season, the caravans from the interior bring the slaves down to the coast wholesale. The Portuguese and Arabs are the chaps that manage the business; and once ...
— The Penang Pirate - and, The Lost Pinnace • John Conroy Hutcheson

... Polly Sparkes?" inquired the young lady presently, again sending a waft of cloves into ...
— The Town Traveller • George Gissing

... The nuptials are resolv'd with utmost power; And he at night would swim to Hero's tower, From whence he meant to Sestos' forked bay To bring her covertly, where ships must stay, Sent by his father, throughly rigg'd and mann'd, To waft her safely to Abydos' strand. There leave we him; and with fresh wing pursue Astonish'd Hero, whose most wished view I thus long have forborne, because I left her So out of countenance, and her spirits bereft her: To look of one abashed is impudence, ...
— Hero and Leander and Other Poems • Christopher Marlowe and George Chapman

... comes, whistling loud, To snatch and waft it, as a cloud, Or giant phantom in a shroud. It spreads,—it curls,—it mounts and whirls; At length a mighty wing unfurls; And then, away!—but where, none knows, Or ...
— The Youth's Coronal • Hannah Flagg Gould

... ship saileth, where shields blink, sun shineth, snow lieth, Finn glideth, fir-tree groweth, falcon flieth the live-long day and the fair wind bloweth straight under both her wings, where Heaven rolleth and earth is tilled, where the breezes waft mists to the sea, where corn is sown. Far shall he dwell from church and Christian men, from the sons of the heathen, from house and cave and from every home, in the torments of Hel. At PEACE we shall be, in concord together, each with other ...
— Grettir The Strong - Grettir's Saga • Unknown

... all her canvas spread, so as to take advantage of the first puff of air which came to waft us beyond the Doldrums towards the region of the south-east trades, then beginning to blow just below the calm belt; consequently, it took all hands some time to clew up and furl all the light upper sails, and squall after ...
— Afloat at Last - A Sailor Boy's Log of his Life at Sea • John Conroy Hutcheson

... story Which Mr. H——— related to me. While he was telling it, a gentle wind arose; the miniature sloops drifted feebly about the ocean; the wretched owners flew from point to point, as the deceptive breeze promised to waft the barks to either shore; the early robins trilled now and then from the newly fringed elms; and the old young man leaned on the rail in the sunshine, little dreaming that two gossips were discussing his affairs ...
— A Struggle For Life • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... trembling on the brink, with fear she sees This unknown clime, nor dares to trust the breeze. But here, no unfledg'd wing was ever crush'd; Be each rude blast within its cavern hush'd. Soft swelling gales may waft her on her way, Till, eagle-like, she eyes the fount of day: She then may dauntless soar, her tuneful voice May please each ear and bid ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor - Vol I, No. 2, February 1810 • Samuel James Arnold

... thy car, Thy Cupid, dove, and sparrow, To waft my fair, Like my own star, To give the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 13, - Issue 368, May 2, 1829 • Various

... the slur of "nasal twang" as one of the peculiarities of the conventicle, when it is in full force in the most approved seats of church orthodoxy. I listened to all in as uncritical and sympathetic a spirit as possible, giving myself up to be lifted by the music as high as it could waft me. To one thus listening, it is impossible to criticize with severity; for, unless positively offensive, any music becomes beautiful by the power of sympathy and association. After service we listened to a short sermon from the Rev. Mr. Villiers, fervent, affectionate, ...
— Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands V2 • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... never grieve whom wing can waft Far from such thoughts—as now. Andromeda! And she is with me; years roll, I shall change, But change can touch her not—so ...
— The Brownings - Their Life and Art • Lilian Whiting

... is hermaphroditic: he too was fine and feminine, unlike the coarser types of men. He craved Reputation and would have it, Milly assured him confidently. She was immediately convinced of his high talent. Alas! She sighed when she said it, for she knew that his gifts would quickly waft him beyond her reach on his upward way. Chicago could not hold one like him long: he was for other, beautifuller ...
— One Woman's Life • Robert Herrick

... Beholders gratify, Sweet to the Soul, and pleasing to the Eye But when their Voices found in Songs, of Praise, When they to God's high Throne their Anthems raise, By these harmonious Sounds, such Rapture's giv'n, Their loud Hosannas waft the Soul to Heav'n: The fourfold Parts in one bright Center meet, To form the blessed Harmony complete. Lov'd by the Good, esteemed by the Wise, To gracious Heav'n, a pleasing sacrifice. Each Note, each Part, each ...
— Over the Border: Acadia • Eliza Chase

... Earthen floors are saturated with damp filth and smelling decay; there are rarely the paper windows, but merely a sort of opening of woodwork, through which the offensive smells of decaying garbage and human filth waft in almost to choke one; tables collapse under the weight of one's dinner; walls are always in decay and hang inwards threateningly; wicked insects, which crawl and jump and bite, creep over the side of one's rice bowl—and much else. Who can describe it? It makes one ill ...
— Across China on Foot • Edwin Dingle

... the magnificent apartments, too, midway between the angle turrets of the facade, Louis XIII ended his unhappy existence in 1642. His own private band of musicians played a "De Profundis" of his own composition to waft his soul on ...
— Royal Palaces and Parks of France • Milburg Francisco Mansfield

... required key to this lock with three wards—Life, Labor, Capital. And, when forged, the Philanthropic Society shall pay you a good price for it. Meantime, don't dream of leaving Hillsborough, or I shall give you a stirrup-cup that will waft you much further than London; for it shall be 'of prussic acid all composed,' or 'juice of cursed Hebenon in a vial.' Come, ...
— Put Yourself in His Place • Charles Reade

... night Stood Dido with a willow in her hand Upon the wild sea-banks, and waft her love To come again ...
— Cynthia's Chauffeur • Louis Tracy

... The "drop serene," of which Milton speaks so pathetically, had fallen on his eyes, and at the time when, in February, 1752, he was composing his last work, "Jephtha" (the one containing "Deeper and Deeper Still," and "Waft her, Angels"), the effort in tracing the lines is, in the original MS., very painfully apparent. Soon afterward he submitted to three operations, but they were in vain, and henceforth all was to be dark to him. His sole remaining work was now to improvise on the organ, and to play at performances ...
— Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 8 (of 8) • Various

... near; He is precious; He has my heart: let the union subsist for ever. Never let me leave Thee more; but through all the vicissitudes of life, keep me; and if I am entering upon my last year, let it be the best of all. Let the odours of the celestial world waft upon ...
— Religion in Earnest - A Memorial of Mrs. Mary Lyth, of York • John Lyth

... Waft of soul's wing! What lies above? Sunshine and Love, Skyblue and Spring! 20 Body hides—where? Ferns of all feather, Mosses and heather. ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning

... Charon saw them approaching, he called out, "Whoever thou mayest be that art now coming armed and in life to our rivers, say quickly on what errand thou art coming. This is the region of ghosts and death; to waft over the bodies of the living in my boat is not permitted. Nor was it joyful to me to receive Hercules when he came, nor Theseus and Pirithous, though they were descendants of the Gods and unconquerable in war. Hercules dared to bind in chains Cerberus himself, the keeper of ...
— The Children's Hour, Volume 3 (of 10) • Various

... is sweet. A thousand different odors meet And mingle in its rare perfume, Such as the winds of summer waft At ...
— The Golden Legend • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... altars of their rest, the pure and sacred shrines; Where Memory, rapt o'er visions fled, her holy spell combines? The sire, the child, oh, waft them back to their delightful dell, When, like a voice from heavenly lands, ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 14, Issue 380, July 11, 1829 • Various

... awe; but I have never been conscious of any emotion so profound and solemn as that which possessed me during the last day of my father's life. I witnessed the expiring flame in those dread moments when time is blent with eternity, and when the last sigh seems to waft the immortal spirit into a state of existence of which no adequate conception can be formed. After all was over, and the breath of life had fled, I could not believe my senses, that the prop of my affections was ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume VI • Various

... vultures for an outcast prey. So far I entreat thee, Lord of Heaven. And thou, Hermes, conductor of the shadowy dead, Speed me to rest, and when with this sharp steel I have cleft a sudden passage to my heart, At one swift bound waft me to painless slumber! But most be ye my helpers, awful Powers, Who know no blandishments, but still perceive All wicked deeds i' the world—strong, swift, and sure, Avenging Furies, understand my wrong, See how my life is ruined, and by whom. Come, ravin on ...
— The Seven Plays in English Verse • Sophocles

... staid and feasted with him, and at the end of the month he dismissed them with many presents, and gave to Ulysses at parting an ox's hide, in which were inclosed all the winds: only he left abroad the western wind, to play upon their sails and waft them gently home to Ithaca. This bag bound in a glittering silver band, so close that no breath could escape, Ulysses hung up at the mast. His companions did not know its contents, but guessed that the monarch had given to him some treasures of gold ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb

... to write to you; my thoughts run away with me, my pen flies like a bird over the paper. You need not remind me of the fact that my handwriting is execrable. I know it, therefore don't waft it across America. Spare me this mortification. Tear the letters up after reading them, or before, if you like. When I see the stacks of never-looked-through letters being dragged from one place to the other, tied up in their old faded ribbons, I feel that I do not wish mine ...
— The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 • Lillie DeHegermann-Lindencrone

... similar character, we have no qualification or condition to suggest which might change its force or significance. When we remember that the genius of such a man as Laplace shared the farthest flight of star-eyed science only to "waft us back the tidings of despair," we are thankful that so profound a student of Nature as Mr. Agassiz has tracked the warm foot-prints of Divinity throughout all the ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various

... her basket with blossoms, some stray waft of perfume, or perhaps the rich scarlet lips of a geranium glowing against the grey stone of the wall, prattled of Fifth Avenue, and recalled a gay boutonniere she once saw Mrs. Carew fasten in ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson

... to accept the offer, you know," he assured her. "I only made it to be offensive. And as I've apparently been successful beyond my fondest hopes, I will now waft myself away." ...
— Little Miss Grouch - A Narrative Based on the Log of Alexander Forsyth Smith's - Maiden Transatlantic Voyage • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... Eagles blood, but rob Bee-hiues: It is impossible that I should dye By such a lowly Vassall as thy selfe. Thy words moue Rage, and not remorse in me: I go of Message from the Queene to France: I charge thee waft me ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... not as the clay within thy hand, Taking the shape and image of thy thought? Heed not these idle tongues, that launch their doubts In erring love against thy watchful care. That which thou doest I accept with joy; I wait for thee as waits a full-sail'd bark The coming breeze to waft it ...
— Poems • Walter R. Cassels

... only keep away!" he groaned to himself, for at least a dozen came softly swooping about them, and one so close that the boy felt the waft of the air set in motion by ...
— Sappers and Miners - The Flood beneath the Sea • George Manville Fenn

... not float her off at high-water mark, and besides had broke a hole in her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were set down musing what we should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and make a waft with her ensign as a signal for the boat to come on board-but no boat stirred; and they fired several times, making other signals for the boat. At last, when all their signals and firing proved fruitless, and they found the boat did not stir, we saw them, ...
— The Junior Classics, V5 • Edited by William Patten

... golden once more on the hills of Lagunitas; the early summer breezes waft stray leaf and blossom over the glittering lake in the Mariposa Mountains. Heading the tireless riflemen of his command, Valois throws himself in desperation on the Union lines at Chickamauga. Crashing volley, ringing ...
— The Little Lady of Lagunitas • Richard Henry Savage

... breast. He summons strait his Denizens of air; 55 The lucid squadrons round the sails repair: Soft o'er the shrouds aerial whispers breathe, That seem'd but Zephyrs to the train beneath. Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold, Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold; 60 Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight, Their fluid bodies half dissolv'd in light, Loose to the wind their airy garments flew, Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew, Dipt in the richest tincture ...
— The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems • Alexander Pope

... just like scrapin's from the inside of a hide, And the spuds were pulled too early, for they're mostly green inside; But from somewhere back amidships there's a smell o' cookin' waft, An' I'd give my earthly prospects for a real good tuck-out aft — Ham an' eggs 'n' coffee, aft, Say, cold fowl for luncheon, aft, Juicy grills an' toast 'n' cutlets — ...
— In the Days When the World Was Wide and Other Verses • Henry Lawson

... not joking." Borne by a waft of the sickly air a downy winged seed came floating towards her, a frail gossamer courier coming from the world above with tidings that Dame Nature, in spite of all the destruction wreaked by men, was carrying on her business. "And—I do not even know that I ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

... my love a letter too, In happy hope no more to roam; I bade her bless the vessel true Whose gallant sails should waft me home. But ere my letter reach'd her hand, My love, my little love, was dead, And when the vessel touch'd the land, Fair hope for evermore ...
— Verses for Children - and Songs for Music • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... fame, inspire my glowing breast: not thee I will call, who, over swelling tides of blood and tears, dost bear the heroe on to glory, while sighs of millions waft his spreading sails; but thee, fair, gentle maid, whom Mnesis, happy nymph, first on the banks of Hebrus did produce. Thee, whom Maeonia educated, whom Mantua charmed, and who, on that fair hill which overlooks ...
— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding

... of Argyle met his doom with firmness; when laying his head on the grim instrument of death, he said it was "a sweet Maiden, whose embrace would waft his soul into heaven." The tragic story of the Earl of Argyle has been ably told by Mr. David Maxwell, C.E., and his iniquitous death is one of many dark passages in the ...
— Bygone Punishments • William Andrews

... should seek in vain; Thence simple bards, by simple prudence taught, To this wise town by simple patrons brought, In simple manner utter simple lays, And take, with simple pensions, simple praise. Waft me, some Muse, to Tweed's inspiring stream, Where all the little Loves and Graces dream; 140 Where, slowly winding, the dull waters creep, And seem themselves to own the power of sleep; Where on the surface lead, like feathers, swims; There let me bathe my yet unhallow'd ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill

... waft me from the harbour-mouth, Wild wind! I seek a warmer sky, And I will see before I die The palms and ...
— The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson • Tennyson

... there was Molly who might be taught, and Juanita who might be visited; and Dr. Sandford who might come like a pleasant gale of wind into the midst of whatever I was about. I did not stop to think of them now, though a waft of the sunny air through the open window brought a violent rush of such images. I tried to shut them out of my head and gave myself wistfully to "three times one is three; three times two is six." Miss Pinshon helped ...
— Daisy • Elizabeth Wetherell

... friend thou art,— Do, prithee, take now in good part Lines the first steamer shall waft o'er. Sorry am I to hear the blacks Still bear your ensign on their backs; The stripes they suffer make me sore. Beware of wrong. The brave are true; The tree of Freedom never grew Where Fraud and Falsehood sowed ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866 • Various

... banks, or amongst the family archives of some of the great country seats of Powysland, there are to be discovered by the diligent searcher masses of old papers, the very existence of which may, perhaps, have been half-forgotten by their present owners, but which waft us back more than half-a-century, and shed varied light on some of the obscurer passages ...
— The Story of the Cambrian - A Biography of a Railway • C. P. Gasquoine

... seems to be attracted and absorbed by bodies of water lying in the course of such winds as waft it ...
— Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health • George E. Waring

... presented to us as a corpse, which bit by bit we painfully dissected. We never glimpsed the living, growing thing, never experienced the Spirit, the same spirit that was able magically to waft me from a wintry Lyme Street to the South Seas, the energizing, electrifying Spirit of true achievement, of life, of God himself. Little by little its flames were smothered until in manhood there seemed no spark of it left alive. Many years were to pass ere it was to revive ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... beautiful landscape painting. That is the kind of longing which is satisfied here, where one feels alive in a brilliantly coloured picture, with none of the hardness of reality. When I was a child, illustrations of woodland and sea, in Paul and Virginia, or Robinson Crusoe, would waft me away from the everyday world; and the sunshine here brings back to my mind the feeling with which I used to gaze on ...
— Glimpses of Bengal • Sir Rabindranath Tagore

... Abbey of Saint Edmund's Bury in Suffolk, twenty days after. Yet if man had told me it should so be, I had felt ready to laugh him to scorn. Ah me, what feathers we be, that a breath from God Almighty can waft hither or thither at ...
— In Convent Walls - The Story of the Despensers • Emily Sarah Holt

... valley, I listened to the theme-like recitative of a warbling vireo, and also watched a sandpiper teetering about the edge of the water, while a red-shafted flicker dashed across the lake to a pine tree on the opposite side. As I left this attractive valley, the hermit thrushes seemed to waft me ...
— Birds of the Rockies • Leander Sylvester Keyser

... safest, sweetest comfort! O blest and living light! That, strong in Heaven's power, All terrors put to flight! Rest quietly, sweet child, And may the gentle numbers Thy mother sends to thee Waft ...
— Sintram and His Companions • Friedrich de la Motte Fouque

... entrance of Clear Lake, and Velvet-paw leaped ashore, and sat down on a mossy stone to dry her fur, and watch for her brother and sister: they, too, found a large piece of birch-bark which the winds had blown into the water, and as a little breeze had sprung up to waft them along, they were not very long before they landed on the island. They were all very glad when they met again, after the perils and fatigues of the voyage. The first thing to be done was to look for something to ...
— Lady Mary and her Nurse • Catharine Parr Traill

... that wings refused in any circumstances to waft them to the realms of ether, they set about inventing aerial machines in which to ascend through the ...
— Up in the Clouds - Balloon Voyages • R.M. Ballantyne

... claws, the princely hunters lay. Ho! strike the flagstaff deep, Sir Knight! ho! scatter flowers, fair maids! Ho! gunners! fire a loud salute! ho! gallants! draw your blades! Thou, sun, shine on her joyously! ye breezes, waft her wide! Our glorious semper eadem! ...
— Successful Recitations • Various

... faces, and fierce Dragons spleenes, Haue sold their fortunes at their natiue homes, Bearing their birth-rights proudly on their backs, To make a hazard of new fortunes heere: In briefe, a brauer choyse of dauntlesse spirits Then now the English bottomes haue waft o're, Did neuer flote vpon the swelling tide, To doe offence and scathe in Christendome: The interruption of their churlish drums Cuts off more circumstance, they ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... and quit the tumult of their dusty strife, for this quiet, lonely shade. Over thee I my arms will fling, fairer than the lodge's roof. I will breathe a perfume like that of flowers over thy happy evening rest. In my bark canoe I'll waft thee o'er the waters of the sky-blue lake. I will deck the folds of thy mantle with the sun's last rays. Come, and on the mountain free rove a fairy bright ...
— The Indian Fairy Book - From the Original Legends • Cornelius Mathews

... by gurgling steam, Shall waft thee down the wood-brow'd stream, And the red channel's broadening gleam Dilate thy gaze, And thou shalt conjure up a theme For ...
— Life and Remains of John Clare - "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" • J. L. Cherry

... the seal on Cromwell's glory. But the fever crept steadily on, and his looks told the tale of death to the Quaker, Fox, who met him riding in Hampton Court Park. "Before I came to him," he says, "as he rode at the head of his Life Guards, I saw and felt a waft of death go forth against him, and when I came to him he looked like a dead man." In the midst of his triumph Cromwell's heart was heavy in fact with the sense of failure. He had no desire to play the tyrant; nor had he any belief in the permanence of a mere tyranny. He clung desperately ...
— History of the English People, Volume VI (of 8) - Puritan England, 1642-1660; The Revolution, 1660-1683 • John Richard Green

... to do it, really, Mops! but I like to imagine it. I'd waft myself off of this balcony, and waft down to the scarlet of ...
— Marjorie at Seacote • Carolyn Wells

... and a thousand others, which (without a waft of knowledge or of thought on our part) enter into and become our sweetest recollections, for the gay young lord possessed no charm, nor even interest. "Dull, dull, how dull it is!" was all he thought when he thought at all; and he vexed his host by asking how he could live in such a ...
— Frida, or, The Lover's Leap, A Legend Of The West Country - From "Slain By The Doones" By R. D. Blackmore • R. D. Blackmore

... revived within me, and I went, As one whom winds waft o'er the bending grass, Through many a vale of that broad continent. At night when I reposed, fair dreams did pass 1705 Before my pillow;—my own Cythna was, Not like a child of death, among them ever; When I arose ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... a brave man braver, but less daring. Thus with seamen: he who goes the oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly. A veteran mariner is never deceived by the treacherous breezes which sometimes waft him pleasantly toward the latitude of the Cape. No sooner does he come within a certain distance of it—previously fixed in his own mind—than all hands are turned to setting the ship in storm-trim; and never mind ...
— White Jacket - or, the World on a Man-of-War • Herman Melville

... with dewy fingers, Brings a waft of violet, Sweet arbutus, dainty primrose, On their lowly graves we set. Soft they slumber, We their ...
— Holiday Stories for Young People • Various

... glades, and golden hours, Such as suit thy buoyant powers: Spirit of the starry night, Pencil out thy fleecy light, That my footprints still my lead To the blush-let Miscodeed,[109] Or the flower to passion true Yielding free its carmine hue: Spirit of the morning dawn, Waft thy fleecy columns on, Snowy white, or tender blue, Such as brave men love to view. Spirit of the greenwood plume, Shed around thy leaf perfume, Such as springs from buds of gold Which thy tiny hands unfold. Spirits, hither quick repair, Hear a ...
— The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American Indians • Henry R. Schoolcraft

... "Sighs shall waft thy ship of sighs over the sea of Tears. Thou shalt pass by islands of laughter and lands of song lying low in the sea, and all of them drenched with tears flung over their rocks by the waves of the sea all driven by ...
— Time and the Gods • Lord Dunsany [Edward J. M. D. Plunkett]

... days, being a boy, carried along in the waft of my grandmother's skirt, I knew nothing ...
— The Dew of Their Youth • S. R. Crockett

... Long did the punkahs waft their breeze over that brave-hued wheel of pleasure, and the sound of the violins quaver and wail out into the morning. Then quickly, as the spangles of dew vanish off grass when the sun rises, all melted away; and in the great rooms were none ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... were constrained for want of wind to stay and waft vp and downe, and then went backe againe to Tition in Barbary, which is sixe leagues off from Gibraltar, and when we came thither we found the people wonderous fauourable to vs, who being but Moores and heathen people shewed vs where to haue fresh water and al other necessaries ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, v. 7 - England's Naval Exploits Against Spain • Richard Hakluyt

... only thing One needed was a magic ring. You rubbed the ring and forth there came A monster born of smoke and flame, A thing of Vapor, Fume and Glare Ready to waft you anywhere. The magic Jinns of yesterday The wand of Science now obey. You ring, and lo! with rush and roar The panting monster's at the door, A thing of Vapor, Fume and Glare Ready to take you anywhere. What's in a name? What choice between ...
— The Mythological Zoo • Oliver Herford

... I, sittin' up, "did YOU ever pause to excogitate that if all the hot air you is dispensin' was to be collected together it would fill a balloon big enough to waft you and me over that Bullyvard of Palms to yonder ...
— Arizona Nights • Stewart Edward White

... is flooded with splendor, And perfumes waft through the air, And gentle people are kneeling To ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VI. • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... broad shield contracted now in span Raised as a screen or fluttered as a fan; The gleaming helm a hollow thimble proves, And weighty gauntlets dwindle into gloves. The plumes that winged the arrow through the sky, Waft to and fro the shuttlecock on high; Two trusty swords are into scissors cross'd, And dinted breastplates are in corsets lost; While dungeon chains to gentler use consigned, Now silken laces, tighten ...
— The Hawarden Visitors' Hand-Book - Revised Edition, 1890 • William Henry Gladstone

... bridge of straw over the roaring gulf of eternal fire. Is there leisure for sport and business, or room for science and literature, or mood for pleasures and amenities? No: to get ourselves and our friends into the magic car of salvation, which will waft us up from the ravenous crests of the brimstone lake packed with visages of anguish, to bind around our souls the floating cord of redemption, which will draw us up to heaven, this should intensely engage every faculty. ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... seven years of age, the Duke of Orleans assumed the reins of government, as regent, during his minority. Law now found himself in a more favourable position. The tide in his affairs had come, which, taken at the flood, was to waft him on to fortune. The regent was his friend, already acquainted with his theory and pretensions, and inclined, moreover, to aid him in any efforts to restore the wounded credit of France, bowed down to the earth by the extravagance of the ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay

... like a saint. He departed this life with the consolation of all the last sacraments. Every cleric in the city helped to waft his soul heavenward with clouds of incense at the solemn obsequies. And, though the rabble—the political opponents of the son, that is—recalled those Wednesdays long before when the flock from the orchards would come ...
— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... Juno first; great Juno's power adore; With suppliant gifts the potent queen constrain, And winds shall waft thee to Italia's shore. There, when at Cumae landing from the main, Avernus' lakes and sounding woods ye gain, Thyself shalt see, within her rock-hewn shrine, The frenzied prophetess, whose mystic strain Expounds the Fates, to leaves of trees consign The ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil - Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor • Virgil

... to the double the attributes of a man? Did you not make his wife come to bid him good night, bend down to kiss him, waft ...
— The Dweller on the Threshold • Robert Smythe Hichens

... a girdle round about the world, When they have done it (comming neere their haven) Are faine to give a warning peece, and call 25 A poore staid fisher-man, that never past His countries sight, to waft and guide them in: So when we wander furthest through the waves Of glassie Glory, and the gulfes of State, Topt with all titles, spreading all our reaches, 30 As if each private arme would sphere the earth, Wee must to vertue for her guide resort, Or wee shall shipwrack ...
— Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois • George Chapman

... air swept down on his head, as if winnowed by frozen wings. Then with a backward waft, colder than any wind he had ever known, the ...
— The Yoke - A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the Children - of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt • Elizabeth Miller

... Fame,"—says the beautiful "Invocation" which begins the thirteenth Book,—"inspire my glowing Breast: Not thee I call, who over swelling Tides of Blood and Tears, dost bear the Heroe on to Glory, while Sighs of Millions waft his spreading Sails; but thee, fair, gentle Maid, whom Mnesis, happy Nymph, first on the Banks of Hebrus didst produce. Thee, whom Maeonia educated, whom Mantua charm'd, and who, on that fair Hill ...
— Fielding - (English Men of Letters Series) • Austin Dobson

... hand is on thy mane[2] That will bind thee in a chain No force of thine can sever. Thy furious headlong tide, In murmurs soft and low, Is destined yet to glide To meet the lake below; And many a bark shall ride Securely on thy breast, To waft across the main Rich stores of golden grain From ...
— Roughing it in the Bush • Susanna Moodie

... passed the tavern the front door opened, and a waft of rank tobacco came out. Then came a little mob of fishermen, many of whom were cursing and swearing. Two of them began to fight, and the local preacher heard the thud of heavy blows. He stepped in amongst the crowd and tried to separate the fighters, but he only got jeered at for his pains. He ...
— The Romance of the Coast • James Runciman

... houses of prayer; 'Tis prayer that church bells waft upon the air; Kaaba and temple, rosary and cross, All are but ...
— Book of Wise Sayings - Selected Largely from Eastern Sources • W. A. Clouston

... by the sculptor, but not displeasing. There was an old fountain near, its stone rim and centre of rock-work green with immemorial mould, and its basin quivering between its water-plants under the soft fall of spray. At a waft of fitful breeze some leaves of early autumn fell from the trees overhead upon the elderly pair where they sat, and a little company of sparrows came and hopped about their feet. Though the square without was so all astir with festive expectation, there were few people in the garden; three or ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... a little silence, and a waft of scented air like balm—I think the perfume of her hair, or it may have been the roses clambering on the wall. I know not. ...
— Bog-Myrtle and Peat - Tales Chiefly Of Galloway Gathered From The Years 1889 To 1895 • S.R. Crockett

... thou thy poor Queen's distress, And canst thou hear my wailing and my woe? May the soft wind that o'er thy hills doth blow Waft thee these thoughts, ...
— Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 • Howard Phillips Lovecraft

... portrait leaning half-startled from the frame, was it his mother? These books, were they the very ones that had fed his youth? How everything was yet warm from his touch! how his presence yet lingered! how much of his life had passed into the dim beauty of the place! How each fresh waft from the blooms without came drowned in fine perfume, laden with delicious languor! What heaven was there! and, ah! what heaven ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 37, November, 1860 • Various

... setting over the green land of Ireland. The sky was serene, the sea smooth, the wind just sufficient to waft the two vessels steadily and gently. After the first firing and a little manoeuvring, the two ships glided on freely, side by side; in that mild air Exchanging their deadly broadsides, like two friendly horsemen walking their ...
— Israel Potter • Herman Melville

... themselves. No women were about, but here and there a guarded light betrayed sin still awake, and here and there a bell, calling the faithful to church, sounded a homely note of peace. The morning was desperately close, without a waft of air. She found the Abbot Milo at his lodging, in the act of setting off to mass at the church of Saint Martha. The sight of her wild face ...
— The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay • Maurice Hewlett

... But lo, on this deserted coast, How pale the sun! how thick the air! Mustering his storms, a sordid host, Lo, Winter desolates the year. The fields resign their latest bloom; No more the breezes waft perfume, No more the streams in music roll: But snows fall dark, or rains resound; And, while great Nature mourns around, Her ...
— Poetical Works of Akenside - [Edited by George Gilfillan] • Mark Akenside

... hands And fade like shadows? Can the old feel this? No, old men take the world for something hard And dreamless; what their fingers grasp and hold, They hold. While I am even now a-quiver With all this moment brings; no youthful monarch Were more intoxicated, when the breezes Should waft to him that cryptic word "possession." [He nears the window.] Ah, lovely stars, are ye out there as ever? From out of this unstable mortal body To look upon your courses in your whirling Eternal orbits—that has been the ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various

... he fled for perhaps a mile. Then he stopped suddenly and listened, his sensitive ears and dilating nostrils held high to catch the faintest waft of air. Not a sound came to him, except the calling of the waters; not a scent, save the raw freshness of melting snow and the balsamic tang of buds just beginning to thrill to the first of the rising sap. ...
— The Watchers of the Trails - A Book of Animal Life • Charles G. D. Roberts

... it drop offen the saddle as I jogged along, only I'm a sensitive kind of cupid and the buckle of the bag hit that place on my knee I got sleep-walking last week while I was thinking up that verse that 'despair' wouldn't rhyme with 'hair' in for me. Want me to waft this here missive over to the milk-house to her and kinder pledge his good digestion and such in ...
— Rose of Old Harpeth • Maria Thompson Daviess

... this instant acquaints me that he is just setting off for New-York. I run from court to waft you a memorandum of affection. I have been remarkably well; was fortunate in my journey. The trial of Livingston and Hoffman is now arguing. It began on Thursday of last week, and will not conclude till to-night. No other ...
— Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Complete • Matthew L. Davis

... elate, Thy perfume's waft by palace gate Or hovel door, in cloud or sunshine, That breath of Eden ...
— Song-waves • Theodore H. Rand

... I stand whose ne'er-sealed eyes the birth behold Of worlds dream-born,—their fiery infant clime, Their teeming life, their epochs gray and cold, Peace kiss and blot their tarnished light and close Their leaden urns with gentleness. I shed The ashes of my silence on their snows,— Then waft them to ...
— The Masque of the Elements • Herman Scheffauer

... tried rather wistfully to convince you, dear reader, that you had a solar plexus and a lumbar ganglion and a few other things. I don't know why I took the trouble. If a fellow doesn't believe he's got a nose, the best way to convince him is gently to waft a little pepper into his nostrils. And there was I painting my own nose purple, and wistfully inviting you to look and believe. No ...
— Fantasia of the Unconscious • D. H. Lawrence

... any sweande sayl to seche after hauen Or any swinging sail to seek after haven, Bot flote forthe with e flyt of e felle wynde[gh] But floated forth with the force of the fell winds. Wheder-warde so e water wafte, hit rebounde Whither-ward so (as) the water waft, it rebounded, Ofte hit roled on-rounde & rered on ende Oft it rolled around and reared on end, Nyf our lorde hade ben her lode[gh]-mon hem had lumpen harde Had our Lord not been their (pilot) leader hardship had befallen ...
— Early English Alliterative Poems - in the West-Midland Dialect of the Fourteenth Century • Various

... melancholy must first spend the surplus of sighs and tears that waft and float the barque of romance to its harbor in the delectable isles. Presently, through the stringy tendons that formed the bars of the confessional, the penitent—or was it the glorified communicant of the sacred flame—told her story ...
— Options • O. Henry

... ever dear friend, with almost my last breath at Torquay, for your kindness about the Gregory, besides the kind note itself. It is, however, too late. We go, or mean at present to go, to-morrow; and the carriage which is to waft us through the air upon a thousand springs has actually arrived. You are not to think severely upon Dr. Scully's candour with me as to the danger of the journey. He does think it 'likely to do me harm;' therefore, you know, he was justified by his medical responsibility in laying before ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon

... there their wealth, Their penance, meditation, piety, Their steadfast reading of the scrolls, their lore Painfully gained with long austerities: And they who, making silent sacrifice, Draw in their breath to feed the flame of thought, And breathe it forth to waft the heart on high, Governing the ventage of each entering air Lest one sigh pass which helpeth not the soul: And they who, day by day denying needs, Lay life itself upon the altar-flame, Burning the body ...
— The Bhagavad-Gita • Sir Edwin Arnold

... stand, undergo, brook, submit to, suffer, bear with; harbor, cherish, entertain; support, sustain, uphold; carry, convey, transport, waft; render, produce, yield; bring forth, teem; relate, refer, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming

... persons of quality present; and between themselves and the gente de razon a space intervened. Behind the Padre's chair stood an Indian to waft upon him, and another stood behind the chair of Gaston Villere. Each of these servants wore one single white garment, and offered the many dishes to the gente fina and refilled their glasses. At the ...
— Padre Ignacio - Or The Song of Temptation • Owen Wister

... of Milan, crying, 'Before another sun has set, I too shall rest beneath the shadow of their pines!' It is in truth not more than a day's journey from Milan to the brink of snow at Macugnaga. But very sad it is to leave the Alps, to stand upon the terraces of Berne and waft ineffectual farewells. The unsympathising Aar rushes beneath; and the snow-peaks, whom we love like friends, abide untroubled by the coming and the going of the world. The clouds drift over them—the sunset warms them with a fiery kiss. Night comes, and we are hurried far away to ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece • John Addington Symonds

... thee—the lofty Cedar nods alone, The sturdy Oak its honours lopp'd deplores, The forest mourns its tallest beauties gone To waft Columbian treasure—to ...
— The Olden Time Series, Vol. 6: Literary Curiosities - Gleanings Chiefly from Old Newspapers of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts • Henry M. Brooks

... unregenerate spleen Profaning heaven's own air with words unclean Against thy sacred name?—Th' august pure Dead In calm of glory sleep:—like them serene, In virtue firmlier mail'd than they with dust, Wait, Clarkson, on our sorrow-trodden sphere, Until her climes waft promise to thine ear, How each thy proud renown will have in trust: Then call'd, at the life-judging Throne appear On the right hand, avouched Loving ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 349, November, 1844 • Various

... upon the blue of the firmament; and now they all followed close upon the leader's ship, and their little boats danced lightly and joyfully over the trackless waves, which lifted up their breasts to waft them over: and so they started. But I looked again in a little while, and they were beginning to be scattered very widely asunder: here and there three or four of the boats kept well together, and followed steadily in the track of the leader's vessel; then there was a long space of the sea with ...
— The Rocky Island - and Other Similitudes • Samuel Wilberforce

... rock, and every sail, and every combing billow was touched with warm hues or gilded with a sharp reflection. The air was like the air nowhere but at the Isles of Shoals; with the sea's salt strength and freshness, and at times a waft of perfumes from the land side. Lois drank it with an inexpressible sense of exhilaration; while her eye went joyously roving from the lovely light on a sail, to the dancing foam of the breakers, to the colours of driftwood ...
— Nobody • Susan Warner

... while Britannia, to his virtues just, Twines the bright wreath, and rears th' immortal bust; While on each wind of heaven his fame shall rise, In endless incense to the smiling skies; The attendant Power, that bade his sails expand, And waft her blessings to each barren land, Now raptur'd bears him to th' immortal plains, Where Mercy hails him with congenial strains; Where soars, on Joy's white plume, his spirit free, And angels choir him, while he waits ...
— Narrative of the Voyages Round The World, • A. Kippis

... swiftly upon excessive inflammation. There you have it in a nutshell. The mucous membrane of the larynx and the bronchial tubes, to enlarge upon its duty for a moment, is endowed with very fine, hair-like processes called cilia, whose action is to waft secretions from the interior of the lungs outward. Hence the danger of promiscuous spraying with all sorts of everyday nostrums, or of anything which may interfere with the activity of these minute bodies or the media ...
— The Voice - Its Production, Care and Preservation • Frank E. Miller



Words linked to "Waft" :   pennoncel, pennon, streamer, be adrift, blow, float, penoncel



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