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Brace   /breɪs/   Listen
Brace

noun
1.
A support that steadies or strengthens something else.
2.
Two items of the same kind.  Synonyms: couple, couplet, distich, duad, duet, duo, dyad, pair, span, twain, twosome, yoke.
3.
A set of two similar things considered as a unit.  Synonym: pair.
4.
Either of two punctuation marks ({ or }) used to enclose textual material.
5.
A rope on a square-rigged ship that is used to swing a yard about and secure it.
6.
Elastic straps that hold trousers up (usually used in the plural).  Synonyms: gallus, suspender.
7.
An appliance that corrects dental irregularities.  Synonyms: braces, orthodontic braces.
8.
A carpenter's tool having a crank handle for turning and a socket to hold a bit for boring.  Synonym: bitstock.
9.
A structural member used to stiffen a framework.  Synonym: bracing.



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"Brace" Quotes from Famous Books



... roof-plate, were of frame construction, made of heavy oak timber, rudely squared, put together with treenails and boarded with oak, usually at an angle of forty-five degrees, thus making of every board a separate brace. This boarding was sometimes covered with coarse stucco, as on the Bull house, or with split shingles, as on the Governor Coddington house, put ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 • Various

... cosily. Gun-racks lined the walls, and dressers laden with valuable china, and these were seasonably adorned with sprigs of holly, ivy, and fir. A kissing-bush, even, hung from the bacon-rack that crossed the ceiling, with many hams wrapped in bracken, a brace of pheasants, and a 'neck' of harvest corn elaborately plaited: and almost directly beneath it stood a circular table with a lamp and a set of dominoes, the half of them laid out in an unfinished game. The floor was of slate but strewn with rugs, some of rag-work others ...
— Corporal Sam and Other Stories • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... has tied Moll Blabbermums and rowling Joe, Each other's joy and pride; Your broomsticks and tin kettles bring, With cannisters and stones: Ye butchers bring your cleavers too, Likewise your marrow-bones; For ne'er a brace in marriage hitch'd, By no one can be found, That's half so blest as Joe and Moll, Search all St. ...
— Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs - and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] • John S. Farmer

... felt the deck lifted the least bit under him. It was as if the ship had risen to a rolling head sea. He laid hold of a handy stanchion to steady himself, but he saw Andie, unsupported, go sliding easily, gently, irresistibly to the bulkhead behind them. Lavis saw Andie brace his legs, and then, remindful and resentful, bound back to his station and set a hand to each of two levers. The iron deck beneath them was still rolling easily; from beneath the deck came a chafing noise, a ...
— Sonnie-Boy's People • James B. Connolly

... to a block of wood with handscrews or a vise. Punch a hole, with a nail set or punch, in the center of the circle to be cut, large enough to receive the spur of the expansive bit. A few turns of the brace will cut out the circle and leave a smooth edge. —Contributed by James T. ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics

... brace himself. Already he was ankle-deep in the quicksand. It flashed across his mind that he could not fight his own way out without abandoning Charlton. For one panicky moment he was mad to get back to solid ground himself. The next he was tugging with all ...
— The Sheriff's Son • William MacLeod Raine

... to impossible that I should miss my shot, or that I could fail wounding three or four of them at the first shot. In this place, then, I resolved to fulfil my design; and accordingly I prepared two muskets and my ordinary fowling-piece. The two muskets I loaded with a brace of slugs each, and four or five smaller bullets, about the size of pistol bullets; and the fowling- piece I loaded with near a handful of swan-shot of the largest size; I also loaded my pistols with about four bullets ...
— Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe

... as I hanker to live, and be a burden. If Jim was able to do for mother, I feel as if I wouldn't mind steppin' out now I'm so fur along. As he ain't, I s'pose I must brace up, and do the best I can," said Joe, as I wiped the drops from his forehead, and tried to look as if his prospect was a ...
— Kitty's Class Day And Other Stories • Louisa M. Alcott

... tone, the failure to use "Mrs.," on the part of the man that addressed her, and the action of the hackman in leaving her to take some white woman home, served as a tonic to brace up the quailing ...
— The Hindered Hand - or, The Reign of the Repressionist • Sutton E. Griggs

... emotional display; never silly sentimentalizings, but a lofty, detached style, impeccable technic, tone as beautiful as starlight—yes, Joseffy is the enchanter who wins me with his disdainful spells. I heard him play the Chopin E minor and the Liszt A major concertos; also a brace of encores. Perfection! The Liszt was not so brilliant as Reisenauer; but—again within its frame—perfection! The Chopin was as Chopin would have had it given in 1840. And there were refinements of tone-color undreamed of even ...
— Old Fogy - His Musical Opinions and Grotesques • James Huneker

... she went Down the rough rocks, and through the flowery plain, Ev'n to her home where coral branches grow, And where the sea-nymph clasps her love again: We the while, terrible as Polypheme, Brandish the lissom rod, and featly try Once more to throw the tempting treacherous fly And win a brace of trophies from ...
— My Life as an Author • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... at issue has been treated by a brace of mathematical birds with too much levity. It may be said, however, that sarcasm and ridicule sometimes succeed, where reason fails.... Such a course is not well suited to a discussion.... For this reason I shall for the future [this implies ...
— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II) • Augustus de Morgan

... many of them. Once a sick sailor drew three pictures for me and set down every stay and brace and sail—square-rigger, schooner, and sloop. But this is the first time I ever sailed on any one of the three. And I find I can't ...
— The Ragged Edge • Harold MacGrath

... and welcome war to brace Her drums! and rend heaven's reeking space! The colors painted face to face, The charging cheer, Though Death's pale horse led on the ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... were filled with terror-stricken people who were fleeing from death, when death was everywhere. They fled from the city only to meet the dreaded apparition in the country. As they journeyed on Leroy grew restless and feverish. He tried to brace himself against the infection which was creeping slowly but insidiously into his life, dulling his brain, fevering his blood, and prostrating his strength. But vain were all his efforts. He had no armor strong enough to repel the invasion of death. They stopped at a small town on the way and ...
— Iola Leroy - Shadows Uplifted • Frances E.W. Harper

... see you doing this. It cuts me to the heart. Why, some of these newspaper shads actually pretend to pity you—you, the greatest romantic actress in America! This man Douglass has got you hypnotized. Honestly, there's something uncanny about the way he has queered you. Brace up. Send him whirling. He isn't worth a minute of your time, Nellie—now, that's the fact. He's a crazy freak. Say the word and I'll fire him and his ...
— The Light of the Star - A Novel • Hamlin Garland

... there before I touched the braces. But it isn't a hole, or rather, someone bored it and stopped it up again. It doesn't weaken the brace any." ...
— Tom Swift and his Motor-boat - or, The Rivals of Lake Carlopa • Victor Appleton

... military training can do when standing on the defensive. Time is necessary to prove whether this new sentiment will remove the fatalistic feeling of helplessness that has been creeping over Dutch public men, and brace them to efforts ...
— Dutch Life in Town and Country • P. M. Hough

... must bear this bravely. It is hard, I know, but Mrs. Spencer is by far the greatest sufferer. Here she is, with two children to look after, and her husband shut out from his home, and her servants in a state of unreasoning terror. I think you two girls should brace up, and help Mrs. Spencer ...
— Marjorie's New Friend • Carolyn Wells

... position, and the difficulties crop up not only in the details, of which only mature experience can give a knowledge, but in the elementary principles regulating our outlook, our attitude. And that is where the public schools could come in with irresistible effect if only they would brace themselves to the task. "Your king and country need you," said the old recruiting poster of 1914. "Good God! have they never wanted me till now?" was the natural rejoinder. In any case they will not cease to want the public school boy when the ...
— The School and the World • Victor Gollancz and David Somervell

... brought up the glass; and the captain, first passing his arm round the fore-brace, to secure himself from falling to leeward with the lurching of the ship, as soon as he could bring the strange vessel into the field of the glass exclaimed, "A line-of-battle ship, by Heavens! and if I am any judge of a hull, or the painting of a ship, she ...
— The King's Own • Captain Frederick Marryat

... had to go out to his field work; but his heart couldn't of been in it that day. I'll bet he could of found the carcass of a petrified zebra with seven legs and not been elated by it. He had only the sweet encouragement of Lydia to brace him. He was depending pathetically ...
— Ma Pettengill • Harry Leon Wilson

... difference whether I am fair or unfair," Kate said, wearily. "It explains why you simply will not brace up, and be a real man, and do a man's work in the world, and achieve a ...
— A Daughter of the Land • Gene Stratton-Porter

... cheerfulness by reflecting how entire his freedom was, and how troublesomely he would have been occupied if he had still held his professional position, yet the mere fact that there was no longer any necessity to brace his energies and faculties to meet some particular call of duty, gave him spaces of a flaccid dreariness, in which his accustomed literary work palled on him; one could not read or write for ever; and so he set himself, as I have said, to compose ...
— Beside Still Waters • Arthur Christopher Benson

... back, and end to back, respectively. Offsetting pipe is a very convenient way of getting the pipe or fittings back to the wall for support. To offset pipe properly and with little trouble, take a piece of scantling 2 by 4 and brace it between the floor and ceiling. Bore a few different-sized holes through it and you will have a very handy device for offsetting pipe. There is a little trick in offsetting pipe that one will have to practice to obtain. The pipe must be held firmly in the place where the ...
— Elements of Plumbing • Samuel Dibble

... room and hurriedly donned clothes more suitable for rough night work. My last care was to slip into my pockets a brace of double-barreled pistols which formed part of my traveling kit. When I returned I found the baron already booted and spurred; this without metaphor. He was stretched full length on the divan, and did not speak as I ...
— The Lock And Key Library - Classic Mystery And Detective Stories, Modern English • Various

... become the most prevalent, if not the only race, in the particular country in which it had originated." He then extends these same views to the white inhabitants of colder climates. I am indebted to Mr. Rowley, of the United States, for having called my attention, through Mr. Brace, to the above passage of ...
— On the Origin of Species - 6th Edition • Charles Darwin

... lack of confidence was soon visible in the efforts of his men, and the undisturbed interest of the Numidians was speedily directed to the manoeuvres of their monarch in the plain. Suddenly the assault burst on them in its fullest force; before they could brace themselves to the surprise, the foremost Romans were more than half-way up the scaling ladders. But the height was too great and the time too short. Stones and fire were again poured on the heads of the assailants. It was some time before their confidence was shaken; but when one or two ladders ...
— A History of Rome, Vol 1 - During the late Republic and early Principate • A H.J. Greenidge

... garde meuble upon our heads, fired upon us a diabolical collection of missiles, such as no mortal ever thought of before:—bits of broken brass; little plates of tin and iron rolled into sugar-loaves; crushed brace-buckles; crooked nails and wads of metal wire;—anything, indeed, that in their extremity they could lay their hands on, and ram into the muzzle of a gun! These things inflicted fearful gashes, and, in many cases, ...
— A Tramp's Wallet - stored by an English goldsmith during his wanderings in Germany and France • William Duthie

... you handle the brace and the bow-line, the wheel and the lead-line, the reef-point and the top-rope? The paddle is a good thing, out of doubt, in a canoe; but of what use is it in ...
— The Pathfinder - The Inland Sea • James Fenimore Cooper

... excessive spiritualism ever aiming at the infinite, makes his imagery run mad. Thus we have Immoral Conduct embodied; the God of Death; Science; the Svarga-heaven; Evening; Untimeliness, and the Earth-bride, while the Ace and Deuce of dice are turned into a brace of Demons. There is also that grotesqueness which the French detect even in Shakespeare, e. g. She drank in his ambrosial form with thirsty eyes like partridges (i. 476) and it often results from the comparison of incompatibles, e. g. a row of birds likened to a garden of nymphs; ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10 • Richard F. Burton

... such a venerable character from its antiquity, that it seems a species of sacrilege, a sort of violation of municipal privileges, to remove or repair it. Such, for instance, in city or country, is a gap in the street or road, large enough to swallow a brace of elephants at once: the inhabitants become acquainted with its localities; and, wisely considering that, as it is every body's business, of course it is no body's business, to repair it, leave it "open for the inspection of the public" for a twelvemonth at least; and if ...
— An Old Sailor's Yarns • Nathaniel Ames

... over, the little crowd dispersed, and the baby, with its brace of mothers, gone to bed, the new friends sat cozily down and enjoyed an hour or two of feminine gossip, exchanged kisses, cards, and photographs, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 • Various

... dozen,—it is possible that we sha'n't hear them any more. When we ride forty miles, at an expense of at least ten dollars, extras not included, to hear a couple of itinerant Dutchmen torture a brace of unoffending instruments into fits, until the very spirit of music howls in sympathy, if some one will cave in our head with a brickbat, we ...
— Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday • Henry C. Lahee

... gazed upon the burnished brace Of plump, ruffed grouse he showed with pride, Angelic grief was in her face: "How could you do it, dear?" she sighed. "The poor, pathetic moveless wings!" The songs all hushed—"Oh, cruel shame!" ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn

... get into the chock-full streets of the town, where thinking was impossible and good round cursing indispensable. Even with its aid in clearing a course for him, Sultan tumbled over a brace of Highlanders, two of a swarm of Maclachlans and Macdonalds who were disputing possession of a cutler's shop on the corner of Bag Street. After their native fashion, they immediately suspended their quarrel to unite against a common foe, ...
— The Yeoman Adventurer • George W. Gough

... said Bond. "Another pillar of the temple tottering, eh? and trying to brace itself ...
— Under the Skylights • Henry Blake Fuller

... sport was to see how many brace of little boys he could bag in a morning; so, in passing along the streets, he peeped into all the drawing-rooms, without having occasion to get upon tiptoe, and picked up every young gentleman who was idly looking out of the windows, ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various

... thy chamber seems well fitted for so goodly a brace of guests—not a thread awry. Everything in trim order for thy gallants, mayhap. Thou hast not been at thy studies of late.—I have seen its interior in somewhat less orderly fashion. I marvel if it might not be pranked out for our coming. ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... last time that I ever killed a brace of lions right and left, and, what is more, I never heard of anybody else doing it. Naturally I was considerably pleased with myself, and having again loaded up, I went on to look for the black-maned beauty who had killed Kaptein. Slowly, and with the greatest care, I proceeded up the ...
— Long Odds • H. Rider Haggard

... a melancholy process. Every now and again a crack of laughter jerked him; once he took his pipe from his mouth and put up a ringing peal of mirth that sent a brace of bunnies, flirting near his feet, wildly scampering for safety. ...
— Once Aboard The Lugger • Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson

... the head of my own break wind. It was gone, as was also the double-barelled gun that had belonged to the overseer. These were the only weapons at the time that were in serviceable condition, for though there were a brace of pistols they had been packed away, as there were no cartridges for them, and my rifle was useless, from having a ball sticking fast in the breech, and which we had in vain endeavoured to extract. A few days' previous ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre

... Prince, whom they are leading back like a dog in a string, whether he will or no, and of the downfall of my family. Last night I felt so feverish that I left my quarters, and walked out, in hopes the keen frosty air would brace my nerves—I cannot tell how much I dislike going on, for I know you will hardly believe me. However—I crossed a small footbridge, and kept walking backwards and forwards, when I observed with surprise, by the clear moonlight, a tall figure in a grey plaid, such as ...
— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott

... sake, Roy, brace up!" cried Will, in a stage whisper. "Can't you see what you are doing? If you keep this up they won't give us ...
— The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island - Or, A Cave and What It Contained • Laura Lee Hope

... Annointed, I implore so much expence of thy royall sweet breath, as will vtter a brace of words ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... 'Cutlets' said to him yesterday?" spoke up "Hay." "He was 'wigging' Kennedy, and he remarked in his tender way, 'Look here, you hero, why don't you brace up and be a man? You are continually sick or on the report, and you aren't worth your salt. Get down below now, and fill your billet.' Poor devil! he tries to do his best, ...
— A Gunner Aboard the "Yankee" • Russell Doubleday

... of thee, to mock The valour which thou hadst; what fate could fall More grievously than this? Either—being killed— Thou wilt win Swarga's safety, or—alive And victor—thou wilt reign an earthly king. Therefore, arise, thou Son of Kunti! brace Thine arm for conflict, nerve thy heart to meet— As things alike to thee—pleasure or pain, Profit or ruin, victory or defeat: So minded, gird thee to the fight, for so Thou ...
— The Bhagavad-Gita • Sir Edwin Arnold

... but supposed himself talking to some lieutenant of the famous outlaw, and though no coward he instinctively cast his eyes towards a brace of pistols that lay within reach of his right hand. This was but for a moment; yet the motion was not unobserved by his visitor, who, stepping forward, drew a couple of similar weapons from his own person and laid them quietly on the ...
— Due South or Cuba Past and Present • Maturin M. Ballou

... She leads on a brace Of black boar-cats to attend her: Who scratch at the moon, And threaten at noon Of night from heaven for ...
— The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 • Robert Herrick

... to drag him out of the house, but before that was done they had broken up all the fittings of the outer door and borne them away on their shoulders. Then she strove to get to the river and among the rocks. Gest was terribly fatigued, but there was no choice but either to brace himself or be dragged down to the rocks. All night long they struggled together, and he thought he had never met with such a monster for strength. She gripped him so tightly to herself that he could do nothing with either hand but ...
— Grettir The Strong - Grettir's Saga • Unknown

... little difficult to say as yet. The case is serious. Just how serious we can't tell to-day—perhaps not to-morrow. I find no trace of fracture of the cranium, or of laceration of the brain; but it's too soon to be sure. Dr. Brace and Dr. Wisdom, who've both been here, are inclined to think that it may be no more than a simple concussion. We ...
— The Dust Flower • Basil King

... children between the age of nine months and two years; and as it is always attended with evident signs of weakness and relaxation, the chief aim in the cure must be to brace and strengthen the solids, and to promote digestion and the due preparation of the fluids. These important ends will be best answered by wholesome nourishing diet, suited to the age and strength of the patient, open dry air, and sufficient exercise. The limbs should ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... my feet; it is a violent act and it awakens me: I feel that it is really done by myself and not by another.... To make a mental effort by itself is too difficult for me; I have to supplement it by physical efforts. I have not succeeded in any other way; that is all: when I brace myself up to burn myself I make my mind freer, lighter and more active for several days. Why do you speak of my desire for mortification? My parents believe that, but it is absurd. It would be a mortification if it brought any suffering, but I enjoy this suffering, it gives me back my mind; it ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... settlers the most furious was Brace Timmins. Not only had he lost in those six weeks six sheep, but now his dog, a splendid animal, half deerhound and half collie, had been shot on suspicion by a neighbor, on no better grounds, apparently, than his long legs and long killing jaws. Still the ...
— Kings in Exile • Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts

... to wash the dishes. That has to be done, even if everybody has gone crazy. There now, dearie, do not you cry. Jem will go, most likely—but the war will be over long before he gets anywhere near it. Let us take a brace and not worry your ...
— Rilla of Ingleside • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... retained a respectable position at the top of the second division, with an occasional journey into the first division during the first month or six weeks. In the middle of June the Naps dropped back into sixth place, below Detroit, for a while, then took a brace and reclaimed the leadership of the second squad for part of July. Midway in August found Cleveland apparently anchored in sixth spot and, with the consent of the Cleveland club owners, Manager ...
— Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913 • John B. Foster

... decided that the white plaster was attractive enough and could serve for years. Instead, he bought a patented litter-carrier that made the job of removing manure from the barn an easy task. The porches purchased everything from a brace and bit to a lathe for the new tool-room and put the finishing touches to the dairy. The result was a four-room house that was the old one born again, and such well-equipped farm buildings that they were ...
— Dust • Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius

... been easy for him to meet that look on the morning of this day, but after that night's work in Morgantown he had to brace his nerve mightily to ...
— Riders of the Silences • John Frederick

... and, the wind increasing, we were obliged to remain there for the rest of the day. All our baking-powder was gone, and we were reduced to "grease bread," i.e., flat cakes of flour and water fried in pork fat. They make a good substitute for bread, but are rather greasy. Joseph had shot a brace of ducks in the morning before coming away, and one of them we had for supper; which, with some potted beef and tea in a tin ...
— Missionary Work Among The Ojebway Indians • Edward Francis Wilson

... creek I slipped and broke my leg just above the ankle. Notwithstanding the great pain I was suffering, Harrington could not help laughing when I urged him to shoot me, as he had the ox, and thus end my misery. He told me to "brace up," and that he would bring me out "all right." "I am not much of a surgeon," said he, "but I can fix that leg of yours, even if I haven't ...
— The Life of Hon. William F. Cody - Known as Buffalo Bill The Famous Hunter, Scout and Guide • William F. Cody

... were to attempt to help the speaker by rising and talking at the same time; and yet this is the absurd action of the human body when a dozen or more parts, that are not needed, contract "in sympathy" with those that have the work to do. It is an unnecessary brace that means loss of power and useless fatigue. One would think that the human machine having only one mind, and the community many thousands, the former would be in a more orderly state ...
— Power Through Repose • Annie Payson Call

... knuckles, and her tears were an honest tribute to pain, with no nonsense of merely wounded sensibility about them. My mother went up and whispered to Krak. Krak had, of course, risen, and stood now listening with a heavy frown. My mother drew herself up proudly; she seemed to brace herself for an effort; I heard nothing except "I think you should consult me," but our quick children's eyes apprehended the meaning of the scene. Krak was being bearded. There was no doubt of it; for presently Krak bowed her head in a jerky unwilling nod and walked out of ...
— The King's Mirror • Anthony Hope

... mounted on the load. The Chenoo bade him hold his head low, so that he could not be knocked off by the branches. "Brace your feet," he said, "so as to be steady." Then the old man flew like the wind,— ne[original illegible] sokano'v'jal samastukteskugul chel wegwasumug wegul; the bushes whistled as they flew past them. They ...
— The Algonquin Legends of New England • Charles Godfrey Leland

... trouble him to have to take his glass with such a sight under his nose; and so he would call out: "Hello, Bub, what's the matter? You look as if you'd been up against it!" And then the other would begin to pour out some tale of misery, and the man would say, "Come have a glass, and maybe that'll brace you up." And so they would drink together, and if the tramp was sufficiently wretched-looking, or good enough at the "gab," they might have two; and if they were to discover that they were from the same ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair

... into daylight again; but he looked thin, and yellow as a guinea, and he had turned miser. He kept but one servant, and fed her and himself at Sir Charles Bassett's expense. He wired that gentleman's hares and rabbits in his own hedges. He went out with his gun every sunny afternoon, and shot a brace or two of pheasants, without disturbing the rest; for he took no dog with him to run and yelp, but a little boy, who quietly tapped the hedgerows and walked the sunny banks and shaws. ...
— A Terrible Temptation - A Story of To-Day • Charles Reade

... Peggy, or Miss Margaret Prescott," admonished Jess; "as Jimsy says, 'brace up,' the best ...
— The Girl Aviators' Motor Butterfly • Margaret Burnham

... disappointments to be submitted to, obstacles and difficulties to be surmounted and overcome*. From whatever source these elements of experience proceed, even if from blind chance, or from fate (which denotes the utterance or decree of arbitrary and irresponsible power), the strong man will brace himself up to bear them; the wise man will shape his conduct by them; the man of lofty soul will rise above them. But the temper in which they will be borne, yielded to, or surmounted, must be contingent on the belief concerning them. If they are regarded as actual evils, they will probably ...
— A Manual of Moral Philosophy • Andrew Preston Peabody

... Sometimes in a brace of books Balzac shows us the front and back-side of some certain section of life: as in "Cousin Pons" and "Cousine Bette."—The corner of Paris where artists, courtesans and poor students most do congregate, where Art capitalized is a sacred word, ...
— Masters of the English Novel - A Study Of Principles And Personalities • Richard Burton

... is a pretty good imitation of it, isn't it?" grinned Leo. "Brace up, old fellow. It's not so bad as it might be. She's quite a respectable girl. We wrote you all about it three weeks ago and broke the news ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1904 • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... their way out of the wreck-pack with much greater speed than that with which they had entered, needing only an occasional brace against a ship's side to send them floating over the wrecks. They came to the wreck-pack's edge at a little distance from the Pallas, ...
— The Sargasso of Space • Edmond Hamilton

... know a thing about the gold mine ner what you- all rode to Oak Crick fer, so Ah hed to explain. He was that flabbergasted! My, Ah feared he'd keel over right at table. So Ah hurried to brace him up wid puttin' an ambitious idee in his head. That's how-come Ah mentioned his ...
— Polly of Pebbly Pit • Lillian Elizabeth Roy

... "You must brace up now, Nora,—Mrs. Cowels, and close your sand valve. You've got a heavy load and a bad rail, and you mustn't waste water ...
— Snow on the Headlight - A Story of the Great Burlington Strike • Cy Warman

... transitive verb, the reading should be, "Behold a true Israelite;" for the text does not mean, "Behold indeed an Israelite." At least, this is not the meaning in our version. W. H. Wells, citing as authorities for the doctrine, "Bullions, Allen and Cornwell, Brace, Butler, and Webber," has the following remark: "There are, however, certain forms of expression in which adverbs bear a special relation to nouns or pronouns; as, 'Behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters.'—Gen. 6: 17. 'For our gospel came not unto you in ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... arms, swung himself into the dark hole. Down he slid into the blackness, slowly and cautiously, until he came to the object of his search. It was Bill Tooley's limp body hanging across a stout timber brace, which, extending from side to side of the shaft and firmly bedded in its walls at each end, had been left there by the miners who ...
— Derrick Sterling - A Story of the Mines • Kirk Munroe

... and proudly termed patience. She had hitherto meditated only to point the dart of anguish, and suppressed the heart heavings of indignant nature merely by the force of contempt. Now she endeavoured to brace her mind to fortitude, and to ask herself what was to be her employment in her dreary cell? Was it not to effect her escape, to fly to the succour of her child, and to baffle the selfish schemes of her ...
— Posthumous Works - of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • Mary Wollstonecraft

... must turn out and fend for themselves," said Mr. Tulliver, feeling that his severity was relaxing and trying to brace it by throwing out a wholesome hint "They mustn't look to ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot

... before, it was a bright October evening, with the clear sky, rich sunshine, and brisk breezy freshness, which indicate that loveliest of the American months,—dinner was over, and with a pitcher of the liquid ruby of Latour, a brace of half-pint beakers, and a score —my contribution—of those most exquisite of smokables, the true old Manila cheroots, we were consoling the inward man in a way that would have opened the eyes, with abhorrent admiration, of any advocate of that coldest of comforts—cold water—who ...
— Warwick Woodlands - Things as they Were There Twenty Years Ago • Henry William Herbert (AKA Frank Forester)

... little fingers touching the seams of his trousers and the palms of his hands turned to the front, lifted his left foot and scratched his right shin with his heel, till a sharp rap on the ankle brought the foot down to the ground again, and caused him to brace up ...
— Frank Merriwell's Chums • Burt L. Standish

... private grudge against Time and a personal pleasure in finishing this job, which, while it lasts, is bringing them extra pay and most excellent free feeding. Just as after a dilatory voyage a crew will brace themselves for the run in, recording with sudden energy their consciousness of triumph over the elements, so on a farm the harvests of hay and corn, sheep-shearing, and threshing will bring out in all a common ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... "Brace up, Dick!" he said at length. "We've been touching the high spots up here and you were strung to a tension that had to break." He crossed to Wherry and laid his hand heavily on the boy's heaving shoulder. "Now, Dick, ...
— Diane of the Green Van • Leona Dalrymple

... in the head by a splinter. 'What will Nelson think of us?' he exclaimed, mournfully, as the frigate wore round. Just then his clerk was killed by his side, and directly afterwards another shot struck down some marines who were hauling in the main-brace. It seemed as if not a man on board could escape, 'Come, then, my boys,' exclaimed their brave Captain Riou, 'let us all die together!' They were the last words he ever spoke. The next moment a shot cut him in two. There ...
— The Grateful Indian - And other Stories • W.H.G. Kingston

... bilious, from its sodden sleep, A ruffled honor,. . .scruples grimed and dull! I show no bravery of shining gems. Truth, Independence, are my fluttering plumes. 'Tis not my form I lace to make me slim, But brace my soul with efforts as with stays, Covered with exploits, not with ribbon-knots, My spirit bristling high like your mustaches, I, traversing the crowds and chattering groups Make Truth ring bravely out like ...
— Cyrano de Bergerac • Edmond Rostand

... of a warm astrachan bonnet, a bourka, [C] and bashlik, [D] completed my outfit. It now consisted of two small portmanteaus (to be changed at Teheran for saddle-bags), a common canvas sack for sleeping purposes, and a brace of revolvers. Gerome was similarly accoutred, with the exception of the portmanteaus. My interpreter was evidently not luxuriously inclined, for his impedimenta were all contained in a small black leather hand-bag! All being ready, eleven o'clock on the night ...
— A Ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan • Harry De Windt

... practice which fair sportsmen will never resort to—the use of a beagle to start a hare in order to be run down by a brace of greyhounds, or perhaps by a lurcher. The hare is not fairly matched ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... announcement, though it was best it should be so under the circumstances. It was long before Maud could hear an outline, even, of the details, but she bore them better than Willoughby could have hoped. The excitement had been so high, as to brace the mind to meet any human evil. The sorrow that came afterwards, though sweetened by so many tender recollections, and chastened hopes, was deep ...
— Wyandotte • James Fenimore Cooper

... Climb a tree, or scale a wall, Without any fear to fall. If he get a hurt or bruise, To complain he must refuse, Though the anguish and the smart Go unto his little heart, He must have his courage ready, Keep his voice and visage steady, Brace his eye-balls stiff as drum, That a tear may never come, And his grief must only speak From the colour in his cheek. This and more he must endure, Hero he in miniature! This and more must now be done Now the breeches are ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb

... this circus-man, and preceding the spectacle of the African war, he had entertained the audience with a short variety-show, to brace the spectacle. He insisted on bringing us around in front and giving us a box, so we could see for ourselves how good it ...
— The Real Latin Quarter • F. Berkeley Smith

... him beg the critics not to put him out by laughing at his appearance. He formed a boundless arsenal of images and similes; he learned the American humorist's art not to parade the joke with a discounting smile. He worked out Euclid to brace his fantasies, as the steel bar in a cement fence-post makes it irresistibly firm. But he allowed his vehement fervor to carry him into such flights as left the reporters unable to accompany ...
— The Lincoln Story Book • Henry L. Williams

... deadest-hearted fishes in the world." He fights and leaps and whirls, and brings his big fin to bear across the force of the current with a variety of tactics that would put his more aristocratic fellow-citizen, the trout, to the blush. Twelve of these pretty fellows, with a brace of good trout for the top, filled my big creel to the brim. And yet, such is the inborn hypocrisy of the human heart that I always pretended to myself to be disappointed because there were not more trout, and made light of the grayling ...
— Little Rivers - A Book Of Essays In Profitable Idleness • Henry van Dyke

... it with a stock of wine, brandy, oil, bread, and the like, sufficient for a considerable voyage. I also filled a large cask with water, and took a good quantity of salt to cure what fish I should take by the way. I carried two guns, two brace of pistols, and other arms, with ammunition proportionable; also an axe or two, a saw to cut wood if I should see any, and a few other tools, which might be highly serviceable if I could land. To all these I added an old sail, to make a covering for my goods ...
— Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Vol. I. (of II.) • Robert Paltock

... assured her cheerfully. "That's right, brace up and smile. Think what it will mean to have one peaceful breakfast, for the last week Peabody has ragged me every meal. Sure I'm going to Washington to dig out a few facts from this Lockwood Hale. Now I'll throw down a little more hay for good measure and we'll go on in. Mustn't ...
— Betty Gordon in Washington • Alice B. Emerson

... seat, his elbows encountering her bonnet, and both her feet being jammed into his hat, which flies off in the concussion. After a few moments the "slough" is passed, and the horses stop, panting;—the senator finds his hat, the woman straightens her bonnet and hushes her child, and they brace themselves for ...
— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... that she could roll into this door by night and arranged a stout sapling to brace the stone immovably. He supplied her well with fire-wood and saw to it that her bandoliers were full of cartridges. In addition, he left her the extra gun and ammunition they had found in the crypt under ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England

... hearts, With humble and familiar courtesy, What reverence he did throw away on slaves; Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles, And patient under-bearing of his fortune, As 'twere to banish their affections with him. Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench; A brace of draymen bid God speed him well, And had the tribute of his supple knee, With thanks my countrymen, my loving friends; As were our England in reversion his, And he our ...
— Characters of Shakespeare's Plays • William Hazlitt

... lifting as the ship rolled, or headed up or off; whether this rope or that which controlled the wilful canvas needed another pull. But if the yard itself had not been laid right, it was too late to mend it. To start a brace with the men on the spar might cause a jerk that would spill from it some one whose both hands were in the work, contrary to the sound tradition, "One hand for yourself and one for the owners." I believe the old English phrase ran, "One for yourself ...
— From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life • Captain A. T. Mahan

... poaching thieves!' roars out a man from the hedge in the garb of a gamekeeper. 'I wish I could catch you on this side of the hedge. I'd put a brace of barrels into you, ...
— The Book of Snobs • William Makepeace Thackeray

... was necessary to "get a brace on," Frank did so, and was able to leave the room in time to go rushing down the stairway and spring into ...
— Frank Merriwell's Chums • Burt L. Standish

... a whirl of wings, Walter's shotgun spoke twice, and a brace of plump partridges struck the ground ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... me that there is no campaigning hardship comparable to a cold rain. One can brace up against the extremes of heat and cold, and mitigate their inclemency in various ways. But there is no escaping a long-continued, chilling rain. It seems to penetrate to the heart, and leach away the very ...
— Andersonville, complete • John McElroy

... brace up and try, mamma; for as Mr. Fulkerson says, it's as sure as guns. From the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he's loathsome to me; and he keeps getting ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... first in the volume is "the Sisters," a pathetic tale of about thirty pages, which a little of the fashionable affectation of some literary coxcombs might fine-draw over a brace of small octavos. As it stands, the story is gracefully, yet energetically told, and is entitled to the place it occupies. The author of Pelham (vide the newspapers) has a pleasant conceit in the shape of a whole-length of fashion, ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, - Issue 340, Supplementary Number (1828) • Various

... indignation and distress must come to this task. The stern, uncompromising militarist will not be moved from his determinations by our horror and hostility. These things will but "brace" him. He has a more vulnerable side. The ultimate lethal weapon for every form of stupidity is ridicule, and against the high silliness of the militarist it is particularly effective. It is the laughter of wholesome ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various

... heavy that the fact of their being able to carry it at all said much for their digestive organs—but most of them ate plain bread, and all of them drank water which had been carried down from the realms of light in little canteens. Frugal though the fare was, it sufficed to brace them for the rest of ...
— Personal Reminiscences in Book Making - and Some Short Stories • R.M. Ballantyne

... meet each other on the path of the green lane, like angels on the steps of Jacob's Ladder in a Flemish picture that I have, where the ladder is represented by a broad stone stair-case; except that blessings are here all brought up instead of down, for a brace of Shad is in the hand of every family-man returning from ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 - Volume 23, Number 4 • Various

... hour later the sledges were at the door, and the party started. The hunt was even less successful than that of the previous day. No stag was seen, but some ten hares and five brace of grouse were shot. At three o'clock the party assembled again at the farm-house and had another hearty meal, terminating with one glass of punch round; then they took their places in their sledges and were driven back to the town; the party ...
— Condemned as a Nihilist - A Story of Escape from Siberia • George Alfred Henty

... yet taste Some subtleties o'th' Isle, that will nor let you Beleeue things certaine: Wellcome, my friends all, But you, my brace of Lords, were I so minded I heere could plucke his Highnesse frowne vpon you And iustifie you Traitors: at this time I ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... to the top of the earth to hunt for our dinner. If she has good luck she will bring us an elephant, or a brace of rhinoceri, or perhaps a few dozen people to ...
— Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz • L. Frank Baum.

... pain, the serpent writhed and pulled so hard that Thor had to brace himself against the side of the boat. When he found that the snake had taken his hook his wrath rose, and his divine strength came upon him. He pulled the line with such tremendous force that his feet went straight through the bottom of the boat, ...
— Types of Children's Literature • Edited by Walter Barnes

... said Sylla, "the scenery should be a wood scene, and then we want a lady's bed-chamber. The second charade is simply a drawing-room scene all through. For properties a brace of pistols, a pair of handcuffs, a jewel-box with plenty of bracelets, rings, &c.—we ladies can easily find those amongst us. In the second, nothing but a letter in bold handwriting. As for dresses, Mrs. Sartoris ...
— Belles and Ringers • Hawley Smart

... say that Fame Is nothing but an empty name! Whilst in that sound there is a charm The nerves to brace, the heart to warm. As, thinking of the mighty dead, The young from slothful couch will start, And vow, with lifted hands outspread, Like them to act a ...
— Deeds that Won the Empire - Historic Battle Scenes • W. H. Fitchett

... were elsewhere. He unloosened the brace of his overalls, reached down into the pocket of his patched garments beneath and, drawing out a fine length of chewing tobacco, took a bite. Then, breaking off a smallish length, he dropped it into the crown of his seaman's ...
— Seven Icelandic Short Stories • Various

... discourage the weak and struggling souls, who are striving to make the best of circumstances, and it can nerve to suicide the hand of some half-crazed being, who needed only a word of encouragement and cheer to brace ...
— The Heart of the New Thought • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... much thy third has wronged thee, Flavian race! 'Twere better ne'er to have bred the other brace. ANON. ...
— Post-Augustan Poetry - From Seneca to Juvenal • H.E. Butler

... joint Minerva knits more strong (Attendant on her chief): the suitor-crowd With wonder gaze, and gazing speak aloud: "Irus! alas! shall Irus be no more? Black fate impends, and this the avenging hour! Gods! how his nerves a matchless strength proclaim, Swell o'er his well-strong limbs, and brace his frame!" ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer, translated by Alexander Pope

... Katrine or Windermere in his fond memory's eye, it is not surprising that the great lakes of America seem howling wildernesses of water, for the shores are mostly low and unpicturesque. There is no changing tide to give variety, no strong smell of seaweed nor salt breeze to brace the wearied nerves, but the wearied nerves are braced nevertheless. The sand is soft and clean to extend one's length upon, and the waves forever rolling up at one's feet are soothing in their monotony. There is no fear of the encroachment of the water, no fear of its leaving ...
— The Making of Mary • Jean Forsyth

... prisoners were objects of Bonaparte's designing intentions. I recollect one evening his saying to me; "Bourrienne, write to the Minister of War, and tell him to select a fine brace of pistols, of the Versailles manufacture, and send them, in my name, to General Zach. He dined with me to-day, and highly praised our manufacture of arms. I should like to give him a token of remembrance; besides,—the, ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... other entertaining books of travel in foreign countries are those of Bayard Taylor, who has left few parts of the world unvisited; Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast;" Curtis's "Nile Notes;" Norman's "Cities of Yucatan;" Dix's "Winter in Madeira;" Brace's "Hungary," "Home Life in Germany," and "Norse Folk;" Olmsted's "Travels in the Seaboard Slave States," and other works; Ross Browne's "Notes," Prime's "Boat" and "Tent Life," and "Letters of Irenaeus;" Slidell's "Year in Spain;" Willis's "Pencillings by the Way;" Hillard's "Six Months ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta

... rested; then they rose again to pull, to push, to shout, and to rest as before; then they implored him in the most moving terms to do something to help them, to put one foot before the other, to brace himself firmly—in short, ...
— The Dodge Club - or, Italy in 1859 • James De Mille

... wind struck her obliquely, and turned her considerably. The man at the helm, who was unluckily the worst steersman of the party, became alarmed, and instead of putting her before the wind luffed her up into it. The wind was so high that it forced the brace of the squaresail out of the hand of the man who was attending it, and instantly upset the canoe, which would have turned bottom upwards but for the resistance made by the awning. Such was the confusion on board, and the waves ran so high, ...
— History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. • Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

... papers, seemed to be a reflection of his own exhausted condition; then a gust of chilly air told of the outer world, and one by one the travellers slid through the narrow doorway, each instinctively pausing to brace himself against the biting cold before stepping ...
— Max • Katherine Cecil Thurston

... pluck when we were in trouble with the red-skins, but I am sure there was not one of us that did not weaken when that snow-slide shot over us; and none of us need be ashamed to say so. A man with good grit will brace up, keep his head cool and his fingers steady on the trigger to the last, though he knows that he has come to the end of his journey and has got to go down; but it is when there is nothing to do, no fight to be made, when you are as helpless as a child and ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty

... well-beaten egg, slide it into sizzling butter and fry on both sides. A chef at the New York Athletic Club once improved on this by first sandwiching the Swiss between a slice of ham and a slice of chicken breast, then beating up a brace of eggs with a jigger of heavy sweet cream and soaking his sandwich in this until it sopped up every drop. A final frying in sweet butter made strong men cry ...
— The Complete Book of Cheese • Robert Carlton Brown

... clean a brace (two) young domestic or wild ducks. Truss same as goose. If domestic ducks are used they may be stuffed. In the wild ducks place in each a head of celery; this is thought to improve their flavor. Domestic ducks should always ...
— Fifty-Two Sunday Dinners - A Book of Recipes • Elizabeth O. Hiller

... (as certain bodies rebound upon contact), and were regarding him as an unwelcome intruder. Thence, with more apologies, he would betake himself to the breakfast-room, to see what was going on in that quarter, and there he would flush a third brace of betrotheds, a proceeding that was not much sport to either party. It could hardly be a matter of surprise, therefore, if Mr. Bouncer should be seized with the prevailing epidemic, and, from the circumstances of his position, should be driven more than he ...
— The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green • Cuthbert Bede

... he prayed for. His wife did not comprehend that delicate, spiritual quality of his heart: that craving for sympathy which came after he had given out so much. He wanted peace, quiet and rest; but she wished to take him forth and exhibit him to the throng. Yet all of her admonitions that he "brace up" were in vain. His work was done. He foresaw the end, and grew impatient that it did not come. Placid, resigned, sane to the last hour, he passed away at Holland House, June Seventeenth, Seventeen Hundred Nineteen, ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard

... next afternoon they proceeded to make good their threat. They went at their men hammer and tongs from the start. And the boys responded at once to this drastic treatment. There was a general brace all along the line. A new factor had been injected into the situation. The listlessness of a few days back gave place to animation, and before half an hour had passed the coach was delighted at the way ...
— Bert Wilson on the Gridiron • J. W. Duffield

... more than once, and if the lady takes you in tow in Benton you'll have the world by the tail as long as it holds. She moves with the top-notchers; she's a knowing little piece—no offense. Her and me are good enough friends. There's no brace game in that deal. I only aim to give you a steer. Savvy?" And he winked. "You're out to see ...
— Desert Dust • Edwin L. Sabin

... that I have not heard your Latin for two days. Come, lazybones, brace up, and let us have it now. I've done my compo, and shall have just time before I go out for a tramp with Gus," said Frank, putting by a neat page to dry, for he studied every day like a conscientious ...
— Jack and Jill • Louisa May Alcott

... it had been worn but a few days. His soft felt sombrero was rolled back from his face, and the young red sun tinged the short brown curls to a ruddy gold. He was looking toward the rising sun. The gleam of it shot across his brace of pistols in his belt, and flashed twin rays into her eyes. Then all at once the man turned ...
— The Girl from Montana • Grace Livingston Hill

... Jove! wish he could see us at some of our wines. Don't we just "splice the main brace" as Emil says,' answered Dolly, the dandy, carefully spreading a napkin over the glossy expanse of shirt-front whereon a diamond stud shone like a lone star. His stutter was nearly outgrown; but he, as well as George, spoke in the tone of condescension, which, with the blase airs they assumed, ...
— Jo's Boys • Louisa May Alcott

... "tweed". The coat was too small and the trousers too short, and they were drawn up to meet the waistcoat—which they did with painful difficulty, now and then showing, by way of protest, two pairs of brass buttons and the ends of the brace-straps; and they seemed to blame the irresponsive waistcoat or the wearer for it all. Yet he never gave way to assist them. A pair of burst elastic-sides were in full evidence, and a rim of cloudy sock, with a hole in it, showed at ...
— On the Track • Henry Lawson

... couldn't. I've lost my grip on everything. Everything's gone against me, and it's too late now for things to change. You don't know—you don't know, you and Bessie. If you did, you'd see how useless all your kindness is, in trying to get me to brace up. I've tried—my God! I have tried to feel that there's a life before me, but I can't—I can't. Sometimes, maybe for a minute, I'll forget what's gone by, and then the next minute the memory of it all comes back with a fearful ...
— The Long Day - The Story of a New York Working Girl As Told by Herself • Dorothy Richardson

... visitation might feele her pulses, and apply such cordiall Remedies as might either ease or cure her. In briefe, the Doctor being sent for, comes and finds the Mercer her husband walking in his shop with a neighbour of his, where after a leash of Congees, and a brace of Baza los manus, the Mercer told him that his Wife is a languishing sicke woman, and withall entreats him to take the paines to walke up the staires, and minister some comfort unto her: Master Doctor, who knew her disease by the Symptomes, ascends up into ...
— Shakespeare Jest-Books; - Reprints of the Early and Very Rare Jest-Books Supposed - to Have Been Used by Shakespeare • Unknown

... them, and work my way gradually back to the little ledge. There I threw myself down, panting and deadly sick, the whole world seeming to spin round me; and there I lay for some time inert and helpless, before I could brace myself sufficiently for a further effort. At length I roused myself and started up again in another direction, towards where I could see a few stunted bushes growing, and here to my joy I found a wider ledge than the last, leading steeply upwards. It came ...
— A Rip Van Winkle Of The Kalahari - Seven Tales of South-West Africa • Frederick Cornell

... afraid of Dion because she felt that he was ungovernable by her, that her will no longer meant anything to him. He did not brace himself to defy it; simply, he did not bother about it. He seemed to have passed into a region where such a trifle as a woman's will ...
— In the Wilderness • Robert Hichens

... heard that of this there was no lack, and that in October the birds would lie right well, especially in the weedy stubbles, and along the brushy banks of water-courses. In many places a fair shot may reckon on from ten to fifteen brace, and I could name two guns that have not unfrequently bagged from thirty to fifty brace on the Eastern Shore; but I believe they shot with unusually "straight powder." There is a good show of woodcock at certain seasons; but it sounds strange to English ears ...
— Border and Bastille • George A. Lawrence

... a pair of handcuffs and slipped one of them around my wrist and shut it up so tight that it pressed into the flesh. Then he led me in front of the counter, slipped the other cuff through a brace under the front edge of the counter, and then clasped it around my other wrist, leaving the short chain which connected the cuffs behind the brace, so that I was a prisoner. He pushed up a ...
— Track's End • Hayden Carruth

... such marvellous sauces for them that the guests examine the proffered dishes curiously and attentively, but rarely make up their minds to try them. Yermolai was under orders to provide his master's kitchen with two brace of grouse and partridges once a month. But he might live where and how he pleased. They had given him up as a man of no use for work of any kind—'bone lazy,' as the expression is among us in Orel. Powder and shot, of course, they did not provide him, following precisely the same ...
— A Sportsman's Sketches - Works of Ivan Turgenev, Vol. I • Ivan Turgenev

... up against a trouble, Meet it squarely, face to face; Lift your chin and set your shoulders, Plant your feet and take a brace. When it's vain to try to dodge it, Do the best that you can do; You may fail, but you may conquer, See ...
— Just Folks • Edgar A. Guest

... needle now lift up from underneath the left hand upper wing of the insect to about the angle shown in Fig. 48; picking up a brace with the left hand, push the pin in the cork in such a manner that the brace lightly holds down the wing. Do the same with the underwing. Repeat with the other side. [Footnote: The braces shown in Fig. 48 should be a little nearer the tips of the fore wings, or supplemented ...
— Practical Taxidermy • Montagu Browne

... true as a Yaqui. He'll chase that Chase fellow, don't mistake me.... Then mother will be home soon. She'll straighten out this—this mystery. And Nell—however it turns out—I know Dick Gale will feel just the same as I feel. Brace up ...
— Desert Gold • Zane Grey

... words. Sentiment?—Yes, by all means a reasonable amount of it, well in hand and thus capable of translation—if the fancy took you—into nicely turned elegiac verse; but a scare, a scare pure and simple, wasn't to be tolerated! And he got up, standing astraddle to brace himself against the swinging of the train, while he stretched, settling himself in his clothes—pulled down the fronts of his waistcoat, buttoned the jacket of his light check suit; and, taking off his wide-awake, smoothed his soft, slightly curly russet-coloured ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet

... in Essex. A suburban resident writes to say he has a few brace on his garden wall each night, if the advertiser is prepared to entice the cats ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, February 4, 1920 • Various

... waiting for an answer, No G—d d—n 'em, as the commodore was parted, they should find the difference. Not knowing the conseqence of this, or by whom the fellow might be spirited up, I acquainted the captain with the affair, who order'd me to deliver a brace of pistols charg'd with a brace of balls to every officer in the ship who wanted 'em, and to take no farther notice ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 • Robert Kerr

... mid-heaven ecstasy; and behold, instead of love's dream, the lifting kick to a limp spine. If only one's friends would oftener give us that lifting kick instead of the softening sympathy! If only they would brace our back bone instead of our ...
— The Freebooters of the Wilderness • Agnes C. Laut

... hope? Why, a brace of rhymes! And then, in life, that miracle takes place which John of Halberstadt did by his magic. We feel like a child; the world is new; every bit of life is run over and enchanted by the ...
— The Poetry Of Robert Browning • Stopford A. Brooke

... right and left at woodcocks." For luxurious modes of making big bags with little trouble he never cared at all. But let him once more explain himself in his own words. "I delight in a mountain walk when I must work hard for my five brace of grouse. I see no amusement in dawdling over a lowland moor where the packs are as thick as chickens in a poultry-yard. I like better than most things a day with my own dogs in scattered covers, when I know not what may rise—a woodcock, an odd pheasant, a snipe ...
— The Life of Froude • Herbert Paul

... At night, when there was a possibility that some curious wild animal might come snuffing around, the door was closed by means of a framework of thick limbs, also fastened together with withes, swinging on leathern hinges, and made secure by a brace leaning against it ...
— The Hunters of the Ozark • Edward S. Ellis

... he is, without exception, the most egregious nincompoop I ever saw. Just as I passed the long swamp on my way home, I met him crashing through the bushes in hot pursuit of a rabbit, the track of which he mistook for a fox. Poor fellow! He had been out since breakfast, and only shot a brace of ptarmigan, although they are as thick as bees and quite tame. 'But then, do you see,' said he, in excuse, 'I'm so very shortsighted! Would you believe it, I've blown fifteen lumps of snow to atoms, in the belief that they ...
— The Young Fur Traders • R.M. Ballantyne

... showed a strong strain of white blood. They wore the usual shirt, trousers, and fringed leather apron, with jim-crow hats. Their bare feet must have been literally as tough as horn; for when one of them roped a big bull he would brace himself, bending back until he was almost sitting down and digging his heels into the ground, and the galloping beast would be stopped short and whirled completely round when the rope tautened. The maddened bulls, and an occasional steer or cow, charged again and again with furious wrath; but ...
— Through the Brazilian Wilderness • Theodore Roosevelt

... more fellows were like you. The difference between us is that while I perfectly agree with you I sit back and talk about it; you go ahead and do something. It's rotten of me not to work harder down here. I know my father is sore on it, and every time he writes I mean to take a brace and do better—honest I do, no kidding. But you know how it goes. Somebody wants me on the ball nine, or on the hockey team, or in the next play, and I say yes to every one of them. The first I know I haven't a minute to study and then I get ...
— The Story of Sugar • Sara Ware Bassett

... and sighed. The sigh was involuntary, the half conscious tribute of a wearied heart. It needed an effort to brace herself against the long hours of a new day, the hours when thoughts would come unbidden, when regrets that she was fighting almost fiercely would rush in and threaten to overwhelm her. But Helen was brave. ...
— The Silent Barrier • Louis Tracy

... cannot," said Sedgwick. "You must brace up and get well, for I tell you, dear old Tom, that I can see better than you, and I have worked out a plan which is going to be a delight ...
— The Wedge of Gold • C. C. Goodwin

... for a boathook. When he returned he caught the hook into the loop of the wire and tried to bring the end of the strand to the deck. He was unable to do it alone and had to get the boys to aid him. Then all three ran the wire around a brace and gradually hauled it aboard. At the end was an iron chain, fastened into several loops, and also the anchor to one ...
— The Rover Boys on Treasure Isle - The Strange Cruise of the Steam Yacht • Edward Stratemeyer

... Russell. Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, ...
— Organic Gardener's Composting • Steve Solomon

... recommended the grape-fruit. He took both with satisfaction, and a second cup of coffee. With that he felt he could easily walk to his class-room; and the walk itself, in the fresh morning air, would brace him further for his hours of routine ...
— Bertram Cope's Year • Henry Blake Fuller

... good? The die was cast, and in any case he was not bound to Isabella in any way. But at least he ought to write to her and tell her he had made a mistake. That was the only honest thing to do. A terrible duty, and he must brace himself up to ...
— Three Weeks • Elinor Glyn

... urged the mother by all the arguments I knew to see a physician at once. She said her husband seriously objected to one's "running to the doctor all the time," and that he thought the girl would come out all right. If she did not "brace up pretty soon," she added, they might "take her out of school and put her to work." During the winter the girl contracted a heavy cold and her indifference and apparent laziness increased. The mother was finally enough impressed by our concern for the girl to take ...
— The Girl and Her Religion • Margaret Slattery

... clothes that Rujub had brought with him, and thrust a sword, two daggers, and a brace of long barreled pistols into the sash round ...
— Rujub, the Juggler • G. A. Henty

... Liberalists of Prussia, but her own power. Bavaria, Wuertemberg and Baden may flirt with liberalism, but no German would think on that account of asking them to assume the rle of Prussia. Prussia must brace herself, for the fitter moment. Prussia's borders are not favorable to the development of ...
— Blood and Iron - Origin of German Empire As Revealed by Character of Its - Founder, Bismarck • John Hubert Greusel

... follow me to another scene—an apartment more spacious, and even more elegant, than the one we have just left, save that it savors more of the "sterner sex." For instance, we may see a brace of pistols, superbly mounted, crossed over the mantel-piece—a flute upon the table—a rifle leaning against the wall, and, I declare, fishing-tackle thrown carelessly down, all among those delicate knackeries so beautifully arranged ...
— Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXII No. 4, April 1848 • Various

... ration of hot sheep—beg your pardon, ladies, what I mean is mutton—and half a dozen more of baked potatoes; and they reminded me of being at home so much that I called for a pint of best pine-apple rum and a brace of lemons, to know where I was—to remind me that I wasn't where ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore

... either Dallas or Abel would stroll round with his gun and get a few ptarmigan or willow grouse. On lucky days, too, a brace of wild ducks would fall to their shot; but these excursions were rare, for there was the one great thirst to satisfy—that for the gold; and for the most part their existence during the brief summer was filled up by hard toil, ...
— To Win or to Die - A Tale of the Klondike Gold Craze • George Manville Fenn

... keep the peace of the said United States of America, in and for the said District, and also to hear and determine divers Felonies, Misdemeanors and other offenses against the said United States of America, in the said District committed. Brace Millerd, James D. Wasson, Peter H. Bradt, James McGinty, Henry A. Davis, Loring W. Osborn, Thomas Whitbeck, John Mullen, Samuel G. Harris, Ralph Davis, Matthew Fanning, Abram Kimmey, Derrick B. Van Schoonhoven, ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... wrote a little note that "nothing bad could happen to the Princesses when they were alone" and that, "I shall exert all in my power to prevent any disagreeable happenings." I wrote that I knew some people were working to save them. My letter, I thought, would brace them up and would give them an idea that there was, amongst these beasts—one, that would not be an enemy. In case of a struggle this idea would keep them from losing hope and their power of resistance. Then I added that I could be found in the hotel, and ...
— Rescuing the Czar - Two authentic Diaries arranged and translated • James P. Smythe



Words linked to "Brace" :   2, tread, framework, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, two, tie, revive, ankle brace, set up, fellow, dental appliance, cathect, man's clothing, nerve, gear up, revivify, strengthener, enliven, strengthen, prepare, mate, crosstie, doubleton, railroad tie, guy, rope, stock, quicken, beef up, distich, strap, shoulder strap, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, crosspiece, vivify, fortify, hold, plural form, reinvigorate, punctuation mark, animate, bracing, sustain, gusset, affect, sleeper, renovate, punctuation, reanimate, gusset plate, de-energise, strut, set, ready, guy wire, ballast, fix, liven, invigorate, stringer, de-energize, guy rope, ii, sedate, support, deuce, recreate, repair, skeg, hold up, steel, plural, structural member, reinforcement, guy cable, stay, liven up



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