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Act   /ækt/   Listen
Act

noun
1.
A legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society or legislative body.  Synonym: enactment.
2.
Something that people do or cause to happen.  Synonyms: deed, human action, human activity.
3.
A subdivision of a play or opera or ballet.
4.
A short theatrical performance that is part of a longer program.  Synonyms: bit, number, routine, turn.  "She had a catchy little routine" , "It was one of the best numbers he ever did"
5.
A manifestation of insincerity.



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"Act" Quotes from Famous Books



... behind his back hiding something. He sat down as before, in the same spot, several feet away. He held out a small piece of meat. White Fang pricked his ears and investigated it suspiciously, managing to look at the same time both at the meat and the god, alert for any overt act, his body tense and ready to spring away at the first sign ...
— White Fang • Jack London

... hands, and should he attempt to see you in the meantime, refer him to me." The epistle ended with the intimation that Agnes was not to worry, as the writer would take the whole burden on his own shoulders. The widow felt more cheerful after this communication, and went back to her town house to act as her lover suggested. She had every belief in Lambert's capability to deal with ...
— Red Money • Fergus Hume

... the coast and country.[19] In the course of the third summer the natives, now called Esquimaux, were first seen; on account of their diminutive stature the adventurers gave them the name of Skraelingar.[20] These poor savages, irritated by an act of barbarous cruelty, attacked the Northmen with darts and arrows, and Thorvald fell a victim to their vengeance. A wealthy Icelander, named Thorfinn, established a regular colony in Vinland soon after this event; ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton

... sister's face against her own; 'but that was hard, and you were always his true advocate. I had tried to tell you of my resolution, but you would never hear me; you would never understand me. The time was drawing near for his return. I felt that I must act, before the daily intercourse between us was renewed. I knew that one great pang, undergone at that time, would save a lengthened agony to all of us. I knew that if I went away then, that end must follow which HAS followed, and ...
— The Battle of Life • Charles Dickens

... master-of-camp. One of them, in order to save himself, declared that the mandarins had come with the cunning purpose of spying out the land, and that the insurrection had been by their orders. He said that they were coming soon to attack the city, and that the Spaniards should not neglect to act very carefully. Accordingly the governor set about taking all necessary measures. He and the sargento-mayor worked in a way wonderful to behold. May God strengthen their hands! Four days later, when the enemy had fortified themselves quite strongly in San Pablo, Captain Don ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XIV., 1606-1609 • Various

... cases of other elements, referred to above, it is often hard to say whether it is the thing or the deity that is invoked: Achilles's appeal, for instance, seems to be to the physical winds, but Iris, who goes to summon them, finds them carousing like men, and they act like gods.[607] It must be borne in mind, however, that in early thought all active things are conceived of as being anthropomorphic, and there is the difficulty, just mentioned, of determining where the anthropomorphic object stops and ...
— Introduction to the History of Religions - Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV • Crawford Howell Toy

... amended, they were never upbraided afterward." Kindly commendation was regularly awarded to obedience evidently done at a sacrifice. "When the thing crossed the child's own inclinations, and when any of them performed an act of obedience, or did any thing with an intention to please, though the performance was not well, yet the obedience and intention were kindly accepted, and the child with sweetness directed how to do better for ...
— Excellent Women • Various

... called for fire. The torch was ready, when Logan sprang angrily forward. With his own hatchet he cut the ropes, and marching the white captive through the mob landed him in the lodge of an old squaw. Few chiefs would have dared an act like this, to save merely a white ...
— Boys' Book of Indian Warriors - and Heroic Indian Women • Edwin L. Sabin

... likely to Larry, too, so they slipped hurriedly out under the elbows of the crowd just as the Juggler was in the very act of finding a white rabbit in the crown of his hat. They never stopped running until they found themselves in the middle of a group of people in a ...
— The Irish Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins

... less favourable influence than that of lime is exercised upon the soil of peaty land by the mere act of burning it: this greatly enhances its fertility. We have not long been acquainted with the remarkable change which the properties of clay undergo by burning. The observation was first made in the process of analysing the clay silicates. Many of these, in their natural ...
— Familiar Letters of Chemistry • Justus Liebig

... is no freedom in the life of one who rules. I may not act after my own wish as any laborer on my land may do. As thou knowest, my people hate thy presence, and demand of me that I wed another. The Pope's letter thou hast heard. Return then, swiftly and without complaint, to thy father's cottage, for ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various

... act like that," he said. Then, seeing his father's look of concern, he added, "I feel as though ...
— The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries • Francis Rolt-Wheeler

... estimated to be worth twenty thousand pounds and an annual allowance of fifteen hundred dollars. But Brant steadfastly refused, and his reason was very plain. How could he accept such a bribe? 'They might expect me,' he said, 'to act contrary to His Majesty's interest and the honour of our nations.' He did, however, promise that he would urge the Miamis to come to terms with the United States, and that he would go to them for ...
— The War Chief of the Six Nations - A Chronicle of Joseph Brant - Volume 16 (of 32) in the series Chronicles of Canada • Louis Aubrey Wood

... The act was consummated in form, and then Madame d'Urfe left us alone for the rest of the night, which was well employed. Afterwards, the countess slept with her aunt till the last day of the moon, when I asked the oracle if the Countess Lascaris had conceived. That well might be, for I had spared ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... them until every vestige of resistance had ceased and the Confederates were disarmed and collected as prisoners. Then sitting on his horse in front of the piazza steps he rapidly gave his orders. His first act was to send a vedette down the avenue toward the main road; then he selected five men, saying, "Take charge of the stables, barn, and out-buildings. Keep them as they are and permit no one to approach ...
— Miss Lou • E. P. Roe

... officers, and three men started to the front with the howitzer under the direction of Joe Blodgett, the scout. They succeeded in getting it up to within half a mile of the scene of action a little after sunrise. They took it across Trail Creek and up on the bluff, where they were in the act of putting it in position to open fire, when a body of about thirty mounted Indians saw it, and ascertaining that only a few men were with it charged with the intention of capturing it. Two of the soldiers who were with the ...
— The Battle of the Big Hole • G. O. Shields

... near Andrea's portrait in our National Gallery—Piero di Cosimo. Piero carried oddity to strange lengths. He lived alone in indescribable dirt, and lived wholly on hard-boiled eggs, which he cooked, with his glue, by the fifty, and ate as he felt inclined. He forbade all pruning of trees as an act of insubordination to Nature, and delighted in rain but cowered in terror from thunder and lightning. He peered curiously at clouds to find strange shapes in them, and in his pursuit of the grotesque examined the spittle of sick persons on the walls ...
— A Wanderer in Florence • E. V. Lucas

... violent. Harry had come to the rescue, and it was decided that there had been enough of this, and that there should be a grand exhibition of tableaux from the history of England in the dining-room, which of course mamma was to guess, with the assistance of any one who was not required to act. ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge

... flatt'ring artes to fayle, And subtile engines bett from batteree; With greedy force he gan the fort assayle, Whereof he weend possessed soone to bee, 40 And with rich spoile of ransackt chastitee. Ah heavens! that do this hideous act behold, And heavenly virgin thus outraged see, How can ye vengeance just so long withold And hurle not flashing flames upon that Paynim ...
— Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I • Edmund Spenser

... of the Town of Waco, County of....... State of Texas, hereby constitute and appoint........ of the city of Reno, County of Washoe, State of Nevada, as my true and lawful attorney, in fact and at law for me and in my name to act for me and appear for me as my attorney in any action that may or shall be instituted by Mary Jones, my wife, against me for the dissolution of the bonds of matrimony existing between us, in the second Judicial District Court ...
— Reno - A Book of Short Stories and Information • Lilyan Stratton

... quantity sufficient for its necessities, according to some hidden law" (op. cit., page 41.) And I can see that the conditions of life must play a most important part in allowing this quantity to increase, as in the budding of a tree, etc. How far these conditions act on "the forms of organic life" (page 46) I do not see clearly. In fact, no part of my subject has so completely puzzled me as to determine what effect to attribute to (what I vaguely call) the direct action of the conditions of ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume I (of II) • Charles Darwin

... company was not moved to take Mr. Frog's advice and try a mud bath. Most of them declared that nothing could induce them to undertake such a risky act. But a few daring ones said that if all the rest would take mud baths, and if they found that they liked them, they themselves would be ...
— The Tale of Ferdinand Frog • Arthur Scott Bailey

... Dinwiddie's foolish schemes and of the shortcomings of the government began to raise up backbiters and malcontents at Williamsburg. "My orders," he said, "are dark, doubtful, and uncertain; to-day approved, to-morrow condemned. Left to act and proceed at hazard, accountable for the consequences, and blamed without the benefit of defense." He determined nevertheless to bear with his trials until the arrival of Lord Loudon, the new commander-in-chief, from whom he expected vigor and improvement. Unfortunately ...
— George Washington, Vol. I • Henry Cabot Lodge

... prince, a scourge to the nation, and ere many months a new insurrection would have made an end. Victory would have been more disastrous than exile. He had done well to abdicate, and were the crisis to recur, he would not act otherwise. He had abandoned power (of which he was accused of being so greedy) as soon as he understood that he could no longer hold it to the advantage of ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851 • Various

... possibly be provided by the free population alone. The lower classes of city and country were not suited to the work wanted, either by capacity or inclination. It was not for a free Roman to be at the beck and call of an employer, like the clerks and underlings of to-day, or to act as servant in a great household; and for a great part of the necessary work he was not sufficiently well educated. Far less was it possible for him to work on the great cattle-runs. And the State wanted the best years of his life for service ...
— Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero • W. Warde Fowler

... although highly approving of the culture of four-footed beasts, be they large or small, I have a prejudice against having my jugular vein breathed, at midnight, by small animals of the weasel tribe,—an act of which Mungo, probably, would have been incapable. His relations will do such things, however, and newspapers recording appalling instances of it may ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... catastrophe. Wilson, with the baby and Lucy, had already disappeared up the staircase, and Madame Vine was disappearing. Archibald lay on the soft carpet of the corridor, where madame had stood; for Joyce, in the act of taking him, had let him slip to the ground—let him fall from sheer terror. She held on to the balustrades, her face ghastly, her mouth open, her eyes fixed in horror—altogether an object to look upon. Archie gathered himself on his sturdy ...
— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood

... seals; and finally they determined to transfer the box in triumph to the said church of Regina Angelorum, accompanied by the veteran troops of the capital, batteries of artillery, music, and whatever else might give impressiveness and splendor to so solemn an act, for which the town was prepared as was noted from the great multitude which filled the temple and the cathedral plaza, to which we certify, as we do also that the present was signed by the gentlemen above named and other ...
— Santo Domingo - A Country With A Future • Otto Schoenrich

... New Iberia, Louisiana, he walked over the grounds accompanied by an old, colored field hand. He talked in his usual manner with the old negro telling him of the many cities in which his contracts compelled him to act ere he would again visit his beautiful ...
— Watch Yourself Go By • Al. G. Field

... front of Mr. Pye. Mr. Pye's glance fell upon him now, and he could scarcely believe it. He rubbed his eyes, and looked, and rubbed again. Bywater there! and without his surplice! braving, as it were, the head-master! What could he possibly mean by this act of insubordination? Why was he not in his place in the school? Why was he mixing with the congregation? But Mr. Pye could as yet obtain ...
— The Channings • Mrs. Henry Wood

... fallen to this, that I could stand by consenting to an act which was worse than assassination? Was any cause worth it? Could any cause survive it? But my attempts at reasoning might be likened to the strainings of a wayfarer lost on a mountain side to pick his way in the gathering dusk. I had ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... certified, duly-licensed medical doctors and may only be done with a grant of Authority to do so from the State. Should an unlicensed person diagnose, offer to treat or attempt to cure disease or illness, they will have committed a felonious act. With big penalties. Therefore, ...
— How and When to Be Your Own Doctor • Dr. Isabelle A. Moser with Steve Solomon

... himself from his father's arms, and glanced almost solemnly out of the window. "I swear that I will henceforth act as if she were still ...
— Agatha Webb • Anna Katharine Green

... a shovel. I have been receiving through the mails for some time past, both from disgusted Northerners and indignant Southerners, a paragraph clipped from its epecine columns where in some mental misfit eager to do the Smart Alex act begs to be informed what right Mrs. Jefferson Davis had "to address a peculiar letter to the Queen Regent of Spain, demanding the release of a party accused of a serious crime," then adds: "If Miss Cisneros is released it will be because ...
— Volume 10 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann

... rendered it necessary that he should eat meat in the Lent he kept before Christmas, but this relaxation consisted only in the use of lard; yet he, nevertheless, accused himself of it in public, as an act of gluttony. His companions have recorded what he said: "I wish to live in hermitages and in other solitary places, as if I was seen by all the world; for, if people have a great opinion of me, and I were not to live as they think I do, I should ...
— The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi • Father Candide Chalippe

... under a five-column head, together with a ferocious statement from Jones, Senior, saying that he would rather see his son breaking rocks in the road than a student in such a college as Blaines was, under the present regime. The editor, instead of seeing in West's letter a spontaneous act of magnanimity in the interest of the academic uplift, maliciously twisted it into a grudging confession of error, "unrelieved by the grace of manly retraction and apology." So ran the editorial, which was offensively headed "West's Fatal Flop." Some of the State papers, it seemed ...
— Queed • Henry Sydnor Harrison

... general, instead of acting in a bustling crowd, generally prepared themselves for their dreadful task by secretly acquiring the competent knowledge, so that they might not find it necessary to take the aid of confederates. They generally did their work alone, or at most two would act together. It certainly argues a sadly demoralised state of society in the reign of King James, that so many persons should be found who would coolly connect themselves with the work of death; but still there was ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 442 - Volume 17, New Series, June 19, 1852 • Various

... they're quite right too," replied Mademoiselle Saget. "Besides, matters are settled now, my dear, and we're to have no more disputes. You've every reason to be satisfied; leave the others to act as they please." ...
— The Fat and the Thin • Emile Zola

... the bright steel flashed in the wavering light as she poised it in act to strike—the next, I had caught her murderous hand and forced it down, and was struggling with her for the mastery of the weapon. She held it with a desperate grip—she fought with me breathlessly, clinging to me with all ...
— Vendetta - A Story of One Forgotten • Marie Corelli

... was obliged to set him straight in a little matter. They were sitting on the terrace and he had thrown away his half-smoked cigarette, an act in itself significant. She had been listening patiently, from sheer habit and indifference, to what he was saying, but at ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds

... himself at all as an entity wishing to live for its own pleasure or profit; and he was dimly conscious, as the blood spurted from his hand, of hoping that Sanda did not see. He would have told her not to look, but the need to act was too pressing to give time for words. Neither he nor she had uttered a sound since his dash for the viper had shaken her clinging fingers from his arm; and it was only when the poisoned flesh and the burnt match ...
— A Soldier of the Legion • C. N. Williamson

... been found, but his body is missing. What do you assume? That he was really toted off by some mysterious object? Nope. You assume he was hurt or killed falling out of the boat. You know that sharks come into the bay and sometimes swim up creeks. You figure that the currents sometimes act in odd ways, depending on the winds. You figure a dozen natural kinds of things, none connected with mysterious flying objects. You call a coroner's jury, and not a man on it is willing to say for the record that he believes in ...
— The Flying Stingaree • Harold Leland Goodwin

... in one place, 'keeps silently a most exact Savings-bank, and official register correct to the most evanescent item, Debtor and Creditor, in respect to one and all of us; silently marks down, Creditor by such and such an unseen act of veracity and heroism; Debtor to such a loud blustery blunder, twenty-seven million strong or one unit strong, and to all acts and words and thoughts executed in consequence of that—Debtor, Debtor, ...
— Critical Miscellanies, Vol. I - Essay 2: Carlyle • John Morley

... has been fasting and praying and dreaming, till she knows not what is true and what is her own imagining, why, time will cure her of her fancies and follies. If otherwise—well, we will see when the time comes. To act in haste were to ...
— A Heroine of France • Evelyn Everett-Green

... Commothau in Bohemia), or efflorescing in cavities (as at Freienwalde in Brandenburg, and at Segario in Sardinia), are impure salts, often destitute of potash, and mixed with the sulphates of ammonia and magnesia. A slow decomposition of the pyrites, which probably act as so many little galvanic piles, renders the waters alumiferous, that circulate across the bituminous lignites and carburetted clays. These waters, in contact with carbonate of lime, even give rise to the deposits of subsulphate ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America V3 • Alexander von Humboldt

... that extraordinary work 'Joseph Sell,' to set off into the country, mend kettles under hedgerows, and make pony and donkey shoes in a dingle. Here, perhaps, some plain, well-meaning person will cry—and with much apparent justice—how can the writer justify him in this act? What motive, save a love for what is low, could induce him to do such things? Would the writer have everybody who is in need of recreation go into the country, mend kettles under hedges, and make pony shoes in dingles? To such an observation the writer would answer that Lavengro had ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... was to hold his head a little higher. It was his plan now to assume his haughtiest manner. The little fear that he had done wrong, that his act in forcing Paul into the ring against a professional swordsman, a gladiator as it were, was mediaeval, and that harm might come to him from it, clung to him. But pride bade him ...
— The Free Rangers - A Story of the Early Days Along the Mississippi • Joseph A. Altsheler

... Mayenne went to each of them, saying privately, "Gentlemen, you see what the question is; it is the very chiefest of all matters (res maxima rerum agitur). I beg you to give your best attention to it, and to so act that the adversaries steal no march on us and get no advantage over us. Nevertheless, I mean to abide by what I have promised them." Mayenne was quite right: it was certainly the chiefest of all matters. The head of the Protestants ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... son," the master answering spoke, "Thy daring act this duty broke. The conflict that the law forbade Thou hast with impious mind essayed."— "Lord, judge when all to thee is known," The other spake, in steadfast tone,— "For I the law's commands and will Purposed with honor to fulfil. I went not out with heedless thought. Hoping ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... Learoyd. The wretched man, tortured by a sense of guilt, and obsessed with the idea that Mary Whittaker's act of sacrifice was a cold-blooded device to shame him and aggravate his misery, had hanged himself, choosing as the scene of his death the spot where, fifteen years before, he had exposed his stepdaughter for sale. In so doing, ...
— More Tales of the Ridings • Frederic Moorman

... operations, and the Beach Commandant congratulated the party on the work done. This officer was no lover of the "Aussies," owing—so rumour had it—to some of them "pinching" his fattening fowls, but on this occasion he contributed, voluntarily, a double issue of rum—an act which ...
— The 28th: A Record of War Service in the Australian Imperial Force, 1915-19, Vol. I • Herbert Brayley Collett

... this obstruction and the noise is produced. When the air is expelled from the lungs its very force pushes the cartilage and vocal cords out, and consequently noise is not produced in the expiratory act. ...
— Special Report on Diseases of the Horse • United States Department of Agriculture

... followed by the King of Prussia, Prince Murat, and the Grand Duke Constantine, this old lady of honor gave way to the two latter princes. Grand Duke Constantine would not take precedence of her, but entirely spoiled this act of politeness by exclaiming in a rude tone, "Pass, madame, pass on!" And turning towards the King of Naples, added, loud enough to be heard, this disgraceful exclamation, ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... very dear and not much known, pushed to the degree where it might be called gallantry. Joined with this was a feeling of delight. She was pleased and smiling, but she was blushing and embarrassed. Advancing with short steps at his side, she bent to his hand every moment and kissed it. Her act was full of a timid charm, half capricious. They both looked like persons who were greatly pleased at meeting, but who remained on a footing of ceremony with each other. He received her in his study as a queen; he seated her in an armchair, then, sitting very near, he held her hands in his. ...
— The Argonauts • Eliza Orzeszko (AKA Orzeszkowa)

... hear to what an issue I will bring the matter. If any god should say, "Lo! I will effect what you desire: you, that were just now a soldier, shall be a merchant; you, lately a lawyer [shall be] a farmer. Do ye depart one way, and ye another, having exchanged the parts [you are to act] in life. How now! why do you stand?" They are unwilling; and yet it is in their power to be happy. What reason can be assigned, but that Jupiter should deservedly distend both his cheeks in indignation, and declare that for the future he will not be so indulgent as to lend ...
— The Works of Horace • Horace

... by very many people that there is a tangible pleasure in the mere act of writing: in choosing and arranging words. It has been denied by many. It is affirmed and denied in the life of Doctor Johnson, and for my part I would say that it is very true in some rare moods and wholly false in most others. However, of writing and the pleasure ...
— On Nothing & Kindred Subjects • Hilaire Belloc

... however, precipitated by circumstances. One afternoon, after he had been accepted, he had taken his quid out of his cheek, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and was in the act of giving and receiving a chaste salute, when Lady Hercules happened to come down into the kitchen—a most rare occurrence, and wholly unexpected from a lady of her refined and delicate ideas. She caught my father and mother in the very act; and (as my father ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat

... aeroplanes at once began their circling flight, mounting higher and higher, but without attempting to go near the Taubes. When the French ships had gained the proper altitude, they closed in toward the German ships, before the latter could reach their own lines in their volplaning act. ...
— Aeroplanes • J. S. Zerbe***

... in turn urging his own horse forward, "you've made trouble enough in the encampment. You shall no longer act the bully here. The stranger comes in peace, and he shall be heard here if he likes. What!" and the blue eyes flashed. "Would you issue orders at a meeting of the free men of the mountains—the very place in all the world where every man who comes ...
— The Junior Classics • Various

... or madness, or self-abandonment. In order to save him from any of these things she meant to give herself into his hands, without terms or conditions, in order that the wrong-doing of the world might be righted by her act, were it ever ...
— Name and Fame - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... wounds to show; the cannon's thunder Does not impair my rest. It's just as well, For, though I dote on blood, and thoughts of plunder Act on my jaded spirit like a spell, I could not but regard it as a blunder If Prussia's foremost scribe should stop ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, May 23, 1917 • Various

... her baby ugly and that she could not get one like Mrs. Hose's she planed that she would steal Mrs. Hoses most lovely baby, little did Miss Junick think that the baby she was going to steal was the greatest tressure Mrs. Hose had ever had so she realy planed to do this wicked act. She was very kind too the baby all this time and each day she grew more and more jealous of the baby and she said her plain must soon happen and I will tell you more ...
— Daisy Ashford: Her Book • Daisy Ashford

... did not recognize me as her neighbor. I would give much to blot out from my memory that one great wrong. As a child, I loved my mistress; and, looking back on the happy days I spent with her, I try to think with less bitterness of this act of injustice. While I was with her, she taught me to read and spell; and for this privilege, which so rarely falls to the lot of a slave, I ...
— Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Written by Herself • Harriet Jacobs (AKA Linda Brent)

... carping friends I turn aside; At foes defiance frown; Yet time may tame my stubborn pride, And break my spirit down. Still, if to error I incline, Truth whispers comfort strong, That never reckless act of mine E'er ...
— Poems • Adam Lindsay Gordon

... your best, before God, to put my own personality out of your minds. I have learnt many things, under God's hand, in the last six months. He has shown me some weaknesses and failings, and I know now that, because of those weaknesses, there are some in this town who would act against anything that I proposed, simply because they would wish me to be defeated. I do implore you this morning not to think of me, but to think only of what will be best—best—best—— " He ...
— The Cathedral • Hugh Walpole

... Belinda's country-house in Devonshire at the end of April, the first act in the garden and the second and last acts ...
— Belinda • A. A. Milne

... from staring eyes, and thought every glance was suspicious. My slave was more timid than I and so I must take the initiative. I had been accustomed to seeing street beggars from behind the screened windows of my cart ever since I was a child and so I knew how I ought to act, but at first it was difficult indeed. Soon, however, we learned to play our part, though it seems now like a hideous dream. We kept on towards the great gate through which we passed out of the city on to the highway which ...
— Court Life in China • Isaac Taylor Headland

... enough to throw himself over—he had worn the chain for too many years, had lived well and softly too long, was too old a slave. And yet—if he had had the courage of the act! Who knows? I rejected the thought far from me. It returned, and I caught myself looking at him with irritated eyes. But this first day passed not intolerably. We ignored our sufferings. Indeed, I felt none for my part. We had kept our thoughts bound to the slow blank minutes. And if we ...
— Romance • Joseph Conrad and F.M. Hueffer

... the cola over which fell the waters of the lakes which formed them. One reason doubtless is that at their upper ends the lakes were shallow, and incompetent on this account to raise wavelets of any strength to act upon the mountain drift. A second reason is that they were land-locked in the higher portions and protected from the south-westerly winds, the stillness of their waters causing them to produce but a feeble ...
— Fragments of science, V. 1-2 • John Tyndall

... further enacted, That all and every person, so building, fitting out, equipping, loading, or otherwise preparing, or sending away, any ship or vessel, knowing, or intending, that the same shall be employed in such trade or business, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, or any ways aiding or abetting therein, shall severally forfeit and pay the sum of two thousand dollars, one moiety thereof, to the use of the United States, and the other moiety thereof, to the use of him or her, who shall sue for the ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 6, 1921 • Various

... there last night," said Horace, not a little mystified at the story, but trying to elucidate some fact sufficiently plain to act upon. ...
— My Little Lady • Eleanor Frances Poynter

... act of the drama between the rival houses of Guise and Valois came when the king and his council came to Blois for the assembly. The sunny city of Blois was indeed to be the scene of a momentous affair, and a truly sumptuous setting it was, the roof-tops of its houses sloping downward ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 4 (of 10) • Various

... consented to return, and afford the dying man the consolation of knowing that the being whom he adored as a benefactor and parent had not been deprived of existence, though bereft of peace by his act. ...
— Edgar Huntley • Charles Brockden Brown

... arithmetic, and history. Steve, he knew, was more frightened than hurt; but the picture of the prostrate, ensanguined youth, and the group of awestricken children, bore in upon his mind the truth that his act was an infraction of the civil code; that even in self-defense, he had no right to use a knife unless his life ...
— Last of the Great Scouts - The Life Story of William F. Cody ["Buffalo Bill"] • Helen Cody Wetmore

... Bolinao, where he found a Chinese vessel whose crew had made captives of a chief and several other natives. Salcedo, retook these captives from the Chinese and gave them their liberty. The Indians, who were not accustomed to such generosity, were so touched by this act that they became voluntary vassals ...
— Negritos of Zambales • William Allan Reed

... Stockbroker, The Lion of the Party, The Fashionable Physician (that is to say, of 1840), The Linen Draper's Assistant, The Barmaid, The Family Governess, The Postman, The Theatrical Manager, The Farmer's Daughter, and The Young Lord, no longer live and move and act their part amongst us. A change comes over the people in the course of forty years, and some years hence our grandchildren may well smile at the extraordinary monstrosities (female) who figure in the graphic satires ...
— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt

... to find out "whether Charles Skrymsher"—he misspelt it "Scrimshaw"—"of Woodseaves"—he misspelt it "Woodease"—"in your neighbourhood, be now alive," and whether he could be found without delay. He added that "it will be an act of great kindness to me," Charles Skrymsher being "very nearly related." Charles Skrymsher was not found, and Johnson told Dr. Vyse that he was disappointed in the inquiries that he had made for his relations. This particular relation, indeed, had been twenty-two ...
— Immortal Memories • Clement Shorter

... get the money," he added, significantly. "If you act quickly, find me a horse and let me go; it is you, not ...
— Under the Rose • Frederic Stewart Isham

... of this command to the emperor from the king of the Goths, it was foolish in the extreme. His object should have been, above all else, to keep the emperor and the pope apart, but by this act he forced them together; only anger can have suggested such an impolitic move. "The king," says the chronicler[1], "returning in great anger [from the murder of Boethius] and unmindful of the blessings of God, considered that he might frighten Justin ...
— Ravenna, A Study • Edward Hutton

... intention to break up the statue, and have it thrown into the sea, precisely in order that such a report may not get abroad, and I lose with the Porte all the merit of my disinterestedness.' In vain Dr. Meryon represented that such an act would be an unpardonable vandalism, and was the less excusable since the Turks had neither claimed the statue, nor protested against its preservation. Her only answer was: 'Malicious people may say I came to search for antiquities for my country, and not for treasures for ...
— Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century • George Paston

... was too far off, and returned with a most lame story. We shall make the best of it by going N.W., to be near the islets and buy food, till we can communicate with Matipa. If he fails us by fair means, we must seize canoes and go by force. The men say fear of me makes them act very cowardly. I have gone amongst the whole population kindly and fairly, but I fear I must now act rigidly, for when they hear that we have submitted to injustice, they at once conclude that we are fair game for all, ...
— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 • David Livingstone

... theory, meeting some queries where others fail, is that ownership is based on the act of production. It is declared that every man has a right to that to which his brain and his muscle have imparted value. It is evident that this test leaves without explanation or justification a great number of things that do exist and have existed as property. Usually ...
— Modern Economic Problems - Economics Vol. II • Frank Albert Fetter

... a late decision in the court of king's bench, that a clause in the Marriage Act of 1751 rendered all marriages unlawful whereof the banns had been published in churches or chapels erected since the passing of the act. This decision would have dissolved thousands of marriages hitherto supposed ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... perfectly distinct object to be attained, I have known a score whose disasters are to be attributed to their not having made themselves certain what their aim is. You do not know what you believe; consequently you do not know how to act." ...
— The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford • Mark Rutherford

... one day in the Lateran fields: but the Clergymen at the intercession of the Pope were pardoned, and banished into France. And thus the title of Roman Emperor, which had hitherto been in the Greek Emperors, was by this act transferred in the West to the Kings ...
— Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John • Isaac Newton

... are at your service. I should esteem it a favor if you would use them as your own. There are many sights of interest about here. A few miles away is the town of P——, a nice little city of about five thousand. No doubt you would like to make some purchases. I will accompany you any time and act as interpreter." ...
— Doctor Jones' Picnic • S. E. Chapman

... carried upward, while the whole jaw is pushed directly backward. The condyle slips into position, sometimes with a distinct snap. When difficulty is experienced in levering the condyle from its abnormal position, a cork may be placed between the molar teeth on each side to act as a fulcrum. After reduction the jaw is fixed by means of a four-tailed bandage for a few days. The patient is warned to avoid for some weeks opening ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles

... in opposite directions, always tending to arrange themselves parallel and flowing in the same direction. These effects arise from the circular lines of force around the wire. When the currents are similar the lines act as unlike magnetic poles and attract, but when the currents are dissimilar the lines act as like magnetic ...
— The Story Of Electricity • John Munro

... watch which one must set over himself, in the crowded thoroughfares of life; because I can whistle, sing, shout, hurrah and be jolly, without exciting the ridicule or provoking the contempt of the world. In short, because I can go back to the days of old, and think, and act, and feel ...
— Wild Northern Scenes - Sporting Adventures with the Rifle and the Rod • S. H. Hammond

... questions or not, and that would make her laugh. I was told that Her Majesty did not like anyone to be too clever, and yet she could not bear stupid people, so I was rather nervous, and did not know how to act for the first three weeks I was there, but it did not take me very long to study her. She certainly admired clever girls, but she did not like those who would show their cleverness too much. How I won her heart was this way. Whenever I was with her I used to fix my whole attention on her and watched ...
— Two Years in the Forbidden City • The Princess Der Ling

... over next morning, and grandmamma dressed and settled in comfort, than away we flew to our friend. "We," means Linda and myself. She is my nearest neighbor, and we often act for ...
— Holiday Stories for Young People • Various

... Departments, six in all, are brought under one head, the General Administration of the I. W. W. One Big Union of all workers, welded together in such a manner that, imbued with the war cry: 'an injury to one is an injury to all,' all its members can act together in ...
— The Red Conspiracy • Joseph J. Mereto

... the bravest act of his life. Shaky and dizzy as he was, with freedom newly opened to him and the mental torments of his captivity still an awful recollection, he did not hesitate. He saw before him the villain of the drama, the one man that stood between the Princess and peace of mind. He regarded ...
— Huntingtower • John Buchan

... things of actuality, they were not, rather, a mere set of romantic trade-marks, so to speak; symbols signifying the South as the butler with side whiskers signifies English comedy; as "Her" visit to "His" rooms, in the third act, signifies English drama; or as double doorways in a ...
— American Adventures - A Second Trip 'Abroad at home' • Julian Street

... the keeper of Costard, the Clown's breaking of the vow has already been satirized by the King's own act. Armado now takes his next turn at making Costard's sentence a hollow mockery by sending him as a messenger to Jacquenetta. How is this first letter-carrying made to lead to a second, doubling the mockery and promising ...
— Shakespeare Study Programs; The Comedies • Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke

... they cast upon their foulness. Oh, no; there was no mistake. I was convicted for what I did, neither more nor less. That bloody vampire Jeffreys—bad cess to him!—sentenced me to death, and his worthy master James Stuart afterwards sent me into slavery, because I had performed an act of mercy; because compassionately and without thought for creed or politics I had sought to relieve the sufferings of a fellow-creature; because I had dressed the wounds of a man who was convicted of treason. That was all my offence. You'll find it in the records. And for that ...
— Captain Blood • Rafael Sabatini

... river by a ford, and came to some vines of a most extraordinary kind. Out of the ground came a thick well-grown stem; but the upper part was a woman, complete from the loins upward. They were like our painters' representations of Daphne in the act of turning into a tree just as Apollo overtakes her. From the finger-tips sprang vine twigs, all loaded with grapes; the hair of their heads was tendrils, leaves, and grape-clusters. They greeted us and welcomed our approach, talking Lydian, ...
— Works, V2 • Lucian of Samosata

... great. I wanted a new hat so much; and the question arose in my mind, 'What am I going to do about it?' As I had no human arm to depend on for anything, of course there was only one way for me to do—ask the Lord for money to get me a hat. With me, to think is to act, and so I told the Lord all about it, asking, if it was His will, to send me, in His own way, money for the article I needed. Day after day passed, and I felt almost discouraged. One day, a letter came from a lady friend I had never seen, enclosing one dollar. I bought my hat—neither ...
— The Wonders of Prayer - A Record of Well Authenticated and Wonderful Answers to Prayer • Various

... ground, whereupon the goddess mounted the car and placed herself by the side of Diomed. The oaken axle groaned aloud under the burden of the awful goddess and the hero; Pallas Minerva took the whip and reins, and drove straight at Mars. He was in the act of stripping huge Periphas, son of Ochesius and bravest of the Aetolians. Bloody Mars was stripping him of his armour, and Minerva donned the helmet of Hades, that he might not see her; when, therefore, ...
— The Iliad • Homer

... accepted that service twenty thousand pesos, which were given as a present to those Chinese who would go on the galley, each one being given eighty pesos, besides the king's pay. With this good aid, Chinese were not wanting to consent to act as rowers, although the twenty thousand pesos were spent among them—or, more correctly, among the officers. From those two hundred and fifty Chinese, five companies were formed, and five Chinese Christians appointed as captains. They made their musters and ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVI, 1609 • H.E. Blair

... Her first act after reaching London had been to dispatch a letter posthaste to the castle, telling of her abduction by the Duke of Monmouth, who, she believed was determined to bring herself and Mistress Penwick to the King's notice, as he ...
— Mistress Penwick • Dutton Payne

... the attributes of which you speak are most desirable," answered Rachel, "but still it seems quite clear to me that every man who has a conviction is bound to act up to it. How much he can accomplish is not the question he must ask himself, but he is bound to ...
— Garman and Worse - A Norwegian Novel • Alexander Lange Kielland

... address posthumous instructions to his son on the art of governing. He appeared to his son in a dream, and thus admonished him: "Hearken unto my words!—Thou art king over the two worlds, prince over the three regions. Act still better than did thy predecessors.—Let there be harmony between thy subjects and thee,—lest they give themselves up to fear; keep not thyself apart in the midst of them; make not thy brother solely from the rich and noble, fill not thy heart with ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... black antelope. The Rajputs held him in equal estimation with the Brahman or perhaps even greater. [288] This was because they looked to him to enshrine their heroic deeds in his songs and hand them down to posterity. His sarcastic references to a defeat in battle or any act displaying a want of courage inflamed their passions as nothing else could do. On the other hand, the Brid-Bhats, who serve the lower castes, occupy an inferior position. This is because they beg at weddings and other feasts, and accept cooked ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume II • R. V. Russell

... of him now," remarked the hermit, as they all stood in a group gazing up into the tree-top. "I have often seen the mias act thus when severely wounded. He is making a nest to lie down and ...
— Blown to Bits - The Lonely Man of Rakata, the Malay Archipelago • R.M. Ballantyne

... she answered, after a pause—"he came home early to-day looking ill. You heard of it, Mr Wentworth—it was your note that decided me. Oh, heaven help us! it is so hard to know what to do. I have never been used to act for myself, and I feel as helpless as a baby. The only comfort I have was that it happened on Easter Sunday," said the poor gentlewoman, incoherently; "and oh! if it should prove a rising from the dead! If you saw ...
— The Perpetual Curate • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant

... be housed somewhere; and, as her mother had not left any property whatever, she must also be maintained at the expense of the parish until she could support herself. Moreover, her cousin Gotti had offered, in the first instance, to take the child for a very slight compensation. He wished to do an act of charity as far as he could afford it. He was known to be a well-conducted man; and, as he made so slight a demand, it was agreed and settled that the child should henceforth find ...
— Rico And Wiseli - Rico And Stineli, And How Wiseli Was Provided For • Johanna Spyri

... strange he appeared in so unsuitable and unlikely a form, in weakness, poverty, misery, ignominy, and all the infirmities of our flesh which seemed rather contrary to his design, and to indispose him for giving life to others whose life was a continued death in the eyes of men. And the last act of the scene seems to blow up the whole design of quickening dead sinners, when he who was designed Captain of salvation, is killed himself. For if he save not himself, how should he save others? And yet behold ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning

... several political groups act as de facto parties: Bedouins, merchants, Sunni and Shi'a activists, and secular leftists ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... who lived when no concealment of borrowed thought was demanded does as much violence to Vergil as it does to Euripides or Petrarch. The poet has always been expected to give expression to his own convictions, but until recently it has been considered a graceful act on his part to honor the good work of his predecessors by the frank use, in recognizable form, of the lines that he most admires. The only requirement has been that the poet should assimilate, and not merely agglomerate his acceptances, that he should ...
— Vergil - A Biography • Tenney Frank

... was not willing to take alarm. He did not think so ill of Sedley as to believe him capable of such a secret act of murder, and he had no great faith in Ralph's sagacity, besides that he thought his niece's nerves too much strained by the long suspense to be able to judge fairly. He thought it would be cruel to the grandparents, and unjust to Sedley, to make such a frightful suggestion without further ...
— A Reputed Changeling • Charlotte M. Yonge

... attempt to deliver him out of my hands. The Englishman made no reply, neither did hee tell me of what had ben proposed unto him. I understood it by my frenchman, that heard the whole matter, & I found it was high time to act for my ...
— Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson • Peter Esprit Radisson

... gain of the colony, or for the general welfare of the movement, which the colony represents. On the contrary, in many cases, their services are liable to become more valuable than ever before. Between the ages of fifty and sixty, they remain subject to assignments to serve on committees, to act as traveling agents for the company, to represent the company as lecturers and organizers, for the spread of the movement; to act as aids to the teachers in the schools and the numerous clubs. They are also eligible to election as town, county, state or United States officials. In committee ...
— Solaris Farm - A Story of the Twentieth Century • Milan C. Edson

... 'unfairness,' 'partiality,' and so forth, the usual changes rung by parties who have had, or are to have, a trial; but I was a little surprised to find myself condemned without being favoured with the act of accusation, and to perceive in the absence of this portentous charge or charges, whatever it or they were to be, that every possible or impossible crime was rumoured to supply its place, and taken for granted. This could only occur in the case of a person ...
— Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5 (of 6) • (Lord Byron) George Gordon Byron

... islands are a National Wildlife Refuge and are the site of the world's largest Laysan albatross colony. Palmyra Atoll: The Kingdom of Hawaii claimed the atoll in 1862, and the US included it among the Hawaiian Islands when it annexed the archipelago in 1898. The Hawaii Statehood Act of 1959 did not include Palmyra Atoll, which is now partly privately owned by the Nature Conservancy with the rest owned by the Federal government and managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. These organizations are managing the atoll as a wildlife refuge. The ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... with the chlorides of lead, potassium, barium, &c., the chlorine acts on the platina and forms a compound with it, which dissolves; but when protochloride of tin is used, the chlorine at the anode does not act upon the platina, but upon the chloride already there, forming a perchloride which rises in vapour (790. 804.). These are, therefore, instances of secondary actions of both kinds, produced in ...
— Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1 • Michael Faraday

... She must not keep her interests and gifts for out-of-school use; if she has a sense of humour she must use it, if she is fond of pretty clothes she must wear them in school, if she appreciates music she must help her class to do the same, if she has dramatic gifts she must act to them. Her standard of goodness must be high, and she must be strong enough to adopt it practically, so that she is unconscious of it: goodness and righteousness are as essential as health to a teacher: ...
— The Child Under Eight • E.R. Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith

... justice of bestowing such appalling, heart-withering denunciations of the popular obloquy upon the venial mistake of a poor author who thought to please us in the act of filling his pockets,—for the sum of his demerits amounts to no more than that,—it does, I own, seem to me a species of retributive justice far too severe for the offence. A culprit in the pillory (bate the eggs) meets with ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, Issue 67, May, 1863 • Various



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