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Break   /breɪk/   Listen
Break

verb
(past broke, obs. brake; past part. broken, obs. broke; pres. part. breaking)
1.
Terminate.  Synonym: interrupt.  "Break a lucky streak" , "Break the cycle of poverty"
2.
Become separated into pieces or fragments.  Synonyms: come apart, fall apart, separate, split up.  "The freshly baked loaf fell apart"
3.
Render inoperable or ineffective.
4.
Ruin completely.  Synonym: bust.
5.
Destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments.  "She broke the match"
6.
Act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises.  Synonyms: breach, go against, infract, offend, transgress, violate.  "Violate the basic laws or human civilization" , "Break a law" , "Break a promise"
7.
Move away or escape suddenly.  Synonyms: break away, break out.  "Three inmates broke jail" , "Nobody can break out--this prison is high security"
8.
Scatter or part.
9.
Force out or release suddenly and often violently something pent up.  Synonyms: burst, erupt.  "Erupt in anger"
10.
Prevent completion.  Synonyms: break off, discontinue, stop.  "Break off the negotiations"
11.
Enter someone's (virtual or real) property in an unauthorized manner, usually with the intent to steal or commit a violent act.  Synonym: break in.  "They broke into my car and stole my radio!" , "Who broke into my account last night?"
12.
Make submissive, obedient, or useful.  Synonym: break in.  "I broke in the new intern"
13.
Fail to agree with; be in violation of; as of rules or patterns.  Synonyms: go against, violate.
14.
Surpass in excellence.  Synonym: better.  "Break a record"
15.
Make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret.  Synonyms: bring out, disclose, discover, divulge, expose, give away, let on, let out, reveal, unwrap.  "The actress won't reveal how old she is" , "Bring out the truth" , "He broke the news to her" , "Unwrap the evidence in the murder case"
16.
Come into being.  "Voices broke in the air"
17.
Stop operating or functioning.  Synonyms: break down, conk out, die, fail, give out, give way, go, go bad.  "The car died on the road" , "The bus we travelled in broke down on the way to town" , "The coffee maker broke" , "The engine failed on the way to town" , "Her eyesight went after the accident"
18.
Interrupt a continued activity.  Synonym: break away.
19.
Make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing.
20.
Curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves.
21.
Lessen in force or effect.  Synonyms: damp, dampen, soften, weaken.  "Break a fall"
22.
Be broken in.
23.
Come to an end.
24.
Vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity.
25.
Cause to give up a habit.
26.
Give up.
27.
Come forth or begin from a state of latency.
28.
Happen or take place.
29.
Cause the failure or ruin of.  "This play will either make or break the playwright"
30.
Invalidate by judicial action.
31.
Discontinue an association or relation; go different ways.  Synonyms: break up, part, separate, split, split up.  "The couple separated after 25 years of marriage" , "My friend and I split up"
32.
Assign to a lower position; reduce in rank.  Synonyms: bump, demote, kick downstairs, relegate.  "He was broken down to Sergeant"
33.
Reduce to bankruptcy.  Synonyms: bankrupt, ruin, smash.  "The slump in the financial markets smashed him"
34.
Change directions suddenly.
35.
Emerge from the surface of a body of water.
36.
Break down, literally or metaphorically.  Synonyms: cave in, collapse, fall in, founder, give, give way.  "The business collapsed" , "The dam broke" , "The roof collapsed" , "The wall gave in" , "The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice"
37.
Do a break dance.  Synonyms: break-dance, break dance.
38.
Exchange for smaller units of money.
39.
Destroy the completeness of a set of related items.  Synonym: break up.
40.
Make the opening shot that scatters the balls.
41.
Separate from a clinch, in boxing.
42.
Go to pieces.  Synonyms: bust, fall apart, wear, wear out.  "The gears wore out" , "The old chair finally fell apart completely"
43.
Break a piece from a whole.  Synonyms: break off, snap off.
44.
Become punctured or penetrated.
45.
Pierce or penetrate.
46.
Be released or become known; of news.  Synonyms: get around, get out.
47.
Cease an action temporarily.  Synonyms: intermit, pause.  "Let's break for lunch"
48.
Interrupt the flow of current in.
49.
Undergo breaking.
50.
Find a flaw in.  "Break down a proof"
51.
Find the solution or key to.
52.
Change suddenly from one tone quality or register to another.
53.
Happen.  Synonyms: develop, recrudesce.  "These political movements recrudesce from time to time"
54.
Become fractured; break or crack on the surface only.  Synonyms: check, crack.
55.
Crack; of the male voice in puberty.
56.
Fall sharply.
57.
Fracture a bone of.  Synonym: fracture.
58.
Diminish or discontinue abruptly.
59.
Weaken or destroy in spirit or body.  "A man broken by the terrible experience of near-death"



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"Break" Quotes from Famous Books



... in overwhelming and terrible calamity. I am anxious, therefore, for you, and my anxiety will greatly increase if this extraordinary and unbroken prosperity should continue much longer. I counsel you, therefore, to break the current yourself, if fortune will not break it. Bring upon yourself some calamity, or loss, or suffering, as a means of averting the heavier evils which will otherwise inevitably befall you. It is a general and substantial welfare only that can ...
— Darius the Great - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott

... binds up its wounds, and repairs its wastage. If you would get a glimpse of the feverish activities of the Base and understand what it means to the Army, you should take up your position on the bridge by the sluices that break the fall of the river into the harbour, close to the quay, where the trawlers are nudging each other at their moorings and the fishermen are shouting in the patois of the littoral amid the creaking of blocks, the screaming of ...
— Leaves from a Field Note-Book • J. H. Morgan

... of rapidly becoming a millionaire having thus been dashed to the ground, we proceeded on our way, getting further and further into the depths of a gloomy forest. A little distance on, I noticed through a break in the trees a huge rhino standing in full view near the edge of a ravine. Unfortunately he caught sight of us as well, and before I could take aim, he snorted loudly and crashed off through the tangled undergrowth. As I followed up this ...
— The Man-eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures • J. H. Patterson

... to take on a lot of new men for the next two years—as many as we can of skilled workmen. The break will have to be made sometime. Anyhow, if you'll risk it they've got a job for you in Shed Number Two—cutting and squaring for a while—forty cents an hour—eight hour day. I'll telephone to the boss if ...
— Flamsted quarries • Mary E. Waller

... professional demagogues who have no end but mischief in view. You saw what resulted here when you first came in, seven years ago. I don't want to hurt Mac's feelings by saying he's a bad example to his nephew, and I don't want to let him know where the boy has been spending his evenings. He'd break every bone in the youngster's skin if he thought he was consorting with anarchists and rioters; and I tell you because you couldn't have heard of it or you yourself would have ...
— A Tame Surrender, A Story of The Chicago Strike • Charles King

... shortcomings of his army. He surrounded Khartoum—which on one side was adequately defended by the Nile and his steamers—on the remaining three sides with a triple line of land mines connected by wires. Often during the siege the Mahdists attempted to break through this ring, but only to meet with repulse, accompanied by heavy loss; and to the very last day of the siege they never succeeded in getting behind the third of these lines. Their efficacy roused Gordon's professional enthusiasm, and in one passage ...
— The Life of Gordon, Volume II • Demetrius Charles Boulger

... impressions to correct when I was here first. And this brings me to a point on which I have, ever since I landed in the United States last November, observed a strict silence, though sometimes tempted to break it, but in reference to which I will, with your good leave, take you into my confidence now. Even the Press, being human, may be sometimes mistaken or misinformed, and I rather think that I have in one or two rare instances ...
— American Notes for General Circulation • Charles Dickens

... led him into relations with her which held him fast, and at the same time grew more and more repulsive to him. At first Nekhludoff could not resist her wiles, then, feeling himself at fault, he could not break off the relations against her will. This was the reason why Nekhludoff considered that he had no right, even if he desired, to ask for the hand of Korchagin. A letter from the husband of that woman happened to lay on the table. Recognizing the handwriting and the stamp, Nekhludoff ...
— The Awakening - The Resurrection • Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy

... week after. Mary & Cloe I expect will ride up in the Carts. Porter, Judson & Collins are to set out next Monday (at their desire) that they may assist in making preparation. School must (I think) unavoidably break up till they remove. Scholars have been much engaged in study (especially in the Art of Speaking) since the Doctor went away. If Scholars are engaged Instructors must be so too—and if Instructors are diligent and faithful, ...
— The History of Dartmouth College • Baxter Perry Smith

... the speaker finally to blurt out: "Good Heavens! man, wake up! I'm trying to break the news gently that you're a millionaire—the Frenchman of Frenchman's Hill. I don't want you to faint. First time in history a miner ever left his claim and ...
— The Winds of Chance • Rex Beach

... greatest care. Do not pull, but carefully cut and coax the clothes away from the burned places. Save the skin unbroken if possible, taking care not to break the blisters. The secret of treatment is to prevent friction, and to keep out the air. If the burn is slight, put on strips of soft linen soaked in a strong solution of baking-soda and water, one heaping table spoonful to a cupful of water. This ...
— A Practical Physiology • Albert F. Blaisdell

... Lord Tyrrell at some country house, and then a quarrel was picked, either by her mother or herself, about my mother retaining the headship of her own house. It was a palpable excuse, but it served to break the affair off, and Raymond was cruelly cut up. My mother made herself everything to him from that moment, gave up all her former habits to be with him, sent the little boys to school, and fairly dragged ...
— The Three Brides • Charlotte M. Yonge

... Men do often times shorten their dayes; goe out of the Ale-house drunk, and break their Necks before they come home. Instances not a few might be given of this, but this is so manifest, a man ...
— The Life and Death of Mr. Badman • John Bunyan

... are that you would be starved, or break your neck, or die of some disease, and never get home; so I intend to keep an eye on you, my laddie," said my friend, in a good-natured tone. "Besides this, my friends and I propose to induce Captain Longfleet to set you at liberty when we reach the Columbia River, ...
— Dick Cheveley - His Adventures and Misadventures • W. H. G. Kingston

... questions. He knew the state of the Scotch Highlands. He was constantly predicting another insurrection in that part of the empire. Yet, during his long tenure of power, he never attempted to perform what was then the most obvious and pressing duty of a British Statesman, to break the power of the Chiefs, and to establish the authority of law through the furthest corners of the Island. Nobody knew better than he that, if this were not done, great mischiefs would follow. But the ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 1 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... island, and to see if any refreshments could be procured. They marched accordingly to the chief place of the island; and, after travelling three days through the mountains, they arrived there before day-break on the fourth day. The inhabitants were all fled, but this part of the island seemed more fertile and better cultivated than any of the rest. They rested here some time, banqueting on delicious grapes, which ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... buxom lass; when I returned A B, I bought her ear-rings, hat, and shawl, a sixpence did break we; At last 'twas time to be on board, so, Poll, says I, farewell; She roared and said, that leaving her ...
— Snarleyyow • Captain Frederick Marryat

... even later than usual this evening when Fergus Derrick left the Rectory. When Mr. Barholm was in his talkative mood, it was not easy for him to break away. So Derrick was fain to listen and linger, and then supper was brought in and he was detained again, and at eleven o'clock Mr. Barholm suddenly hit ...
— That Lass O' Lowrie's - 1877 • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... a quick pace towards its downfall. No sooner had this monarch disappeared than it began to break up.** There were no doubt many claimants for the crown, but none of them succeeded in disposing of the claims of his rivals, and anarchy reigned supreme from one end of the Nile valley to the other. The land of Qimit began to drift away, and the people within it had no longer ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... Dr. Carter 's fast 's he could be raked over here from Meadville. She says legs is scarce birds, 'n' you can't go lavishin' one on every young man 's is anxious to build up a practice on you. She says how do you know 's it 's a clean break 's you've got there anyhow? Maybe it 's a fracture. A fracture 's when the bone splinters all to pieces 'n' fans out every way inside o' your leg. O' course young Dr. Brown ain't got beyond clean breaks yet, 'n' if you're splintered in place o' bein' clean you ...
— Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop • Anne Warner

... which he sat, but his pens, inkstand, and knife. His own letters on his refuge are interesting. Writing to Moore in 1816 he says: "By way of divertisement, I am studying daily, at an Armenian monastery, the Armenian language. I found that my mind wanted something craggy to break upon; and this—as the most difficult thing I could discover here for an amusement—I have chosen, to torture me into attention. It is a rich language, however, and would amply repay any one the trouble of learning it. I try, and shall go on; but I answer for nothing, least of ...
— A Wanderer in Venice • E.V. Lucas

... demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case. No doubt many organs exist of which we do not know the transitional grades, more especially if we look to much-isolated species, around which, according to the theory, there has been much extinction. Or again, if we take an organ common ...
— On the Origin of Species - 6th Edition • Charles Darwin

... of? That's why I spoke to you. You know her, and I'll throttle you here where we stand if you don't tell me just what the trouble is. I don't care for confidences or anything of the sort. You must break them ...
— The Secret City • Hugh Walpole

... said he waxing more and more energetic, as he felt the opposition which he was bound to overcome, "that what I had to say to you would not be pleasant. If you cannot endure to hear me, let us break up and go away. In that case I must tell my friends at home that the tender ears of a British audience cannot bear rough words from American lips. And yet if you think of it we have borne rough words from you and have borne them with good-humour." Again he paused, but as none rose from their ...
— The American Senator • Anthony Trollope

... and French and Italians promised us an independent Arab country. Where is it? Have you seen any of it? No. And you're helping the British break their promise! ...
— The Lion of Petra • Talbot Mundy

... harvest; while others, like Newman of old, had "fierce thoughts toward the Liberals," talked and spoke of Meynell and the whole band of Modernist clergy as traitors with whom no parley could be kept, and were ready to break up the Church at twenty-four hours' notice rather than sit down at the same table of the ...
— The Case of Richard Meynell • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... decencies. In the South, where the suspicion of ideas goes to extraordinary lengths, even for the United States, some of the newspapers actually denounced the book as German propaganda, designed to break down American morale, and called upon the Department of Justice to proceed against me for the crime known to American law as "criminal anarchy," i.e., "imagining the King's death." Why the Comstocks did not forbid it the mails as lewd and lascivious I have never been able to determine. Certainly, ...
— In Defense of Women • H. L. Mencken

... before his kitchen fire heard the shouts and yells, and ran to the pond at break-neck speed. He saw a large black hole in the ice, and a pale young fellow stood with chattering teeth shoulder-deep in the ...
— Toaster's Handbook - Jokes, Stories, and Quotations • Peggy Edmund & Harold W. Williams, compilers

... He has not been seen by any after last evening. He did not occupy his room. But worse, far worse, will I break you the news gently—his baggage ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad • Edith Van Dyne

... certain canon in the hills, narrow, encumbered with great rocks, and echoing with the roar of a tumultuous torrent. Cascade after cascade thundered and hung up its flag of whiteness in the night, or fanned our faces with the wet wind of its descent. The trail was break-neck, and led to famine-guarded deserts; it had been long since deserted for more practicable routes; and it was now a part of the world untrod from year to year by human footing. Judge of our dismay when, turning suddenly an angle of the cliffs, we found a bright ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 5 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... never to this day been able to make up my mind whether the Lady Kirkpatrick was really stirred with such anger as she pretended, whether she was only more than a little mad, or if all was done merely to break down Irma's reserve by playing on her anger ...
— The Dew of Their Youth • S. R. Crockett

... to the bare ground, expecting every moment to be whirled away and whelmed in the black howling sea! Oh! it was a night of terrible anxiety, and no one can conceive the feelings of intense gratitude and relief with which we at last saw the dawn of day break through the vapory ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne

... could recover from his surprise, he felt himself run forward by the two hands which had been dropped on his shoulders, thrust through the door, the farmer whispering savagely, "Work, or I'll break your neck;" and giving him a fierce push and a kick, which drove him along a passage, where on his left was the open doorway into the dimly ...
— Cutlass and Cudgel • George Manville Fenn

... Through Christ I can do all things." Nothing, all things. There is a good deal of difference between two men; take one without Christ, and, be his parts never so excellent, his resolutions never so strong, his engagements never so sacred, "he can do nothing;" unless it be to "break his covenant and vows," as Samson brake his cords like threads scorched with the fire; and, take the other with a Christ standing by him, and be he in himself never so weak and mean, unlearned and ungifted, lo, as if he were clothed ...
— The Covenants And The Covenanters - Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation • Various

... characteristic of Derrick's ranch. To the east the reach seemed infinite, flat, cheerless, heat-ridden, unrolling like a gigantic scroll toward the faint shimmer of the distant horizons, with here and there an isolated live-oak to break the sombre monotony. But bordering the road to the westward, the surface roughened and raised, clambering up to the higher ground, on the crest of which the old Mission and its surrounding pear ...
— The Octopus • Frank Norris

... find him. Notwithstanding the fact that you destined him for my cousin, the little curly creature always impressed me as being a stray specimen of an otherwise extinct type of intellectual Lacrymatoria. Is he really dead? Peace to his infusorial soul! Who had the courage to write and break the melancholy tidings to you? Or perhaps, after all, it is only the ghost of your own conscience that has brought that ...
— St. Elmo • Augusta J. Evans

... only in contrast with the more rabid "Red" rebels of the Left; and that the one object of Right and Left alike is to stir up discontent and foment hatred of class against class precisely in order that a rebellion may some day break out. ...
— The Red Conspiracy • Joseph J. Mereto

... not very long ago in the river running under our windows. A few days afterwards a field piece was dragged to the water's edge, and fired many times over the river. We asked a bystander, who looked like a fisherman, what that was for. It was to "break the gall," he said, and so bring the drowned person to the surface. A strange physiological fancy and a very odd non sequitur; but that is not our present point. A good many extraordinary objects do really come to the surface when ...
— Pages From an Old Volume of Life - A Collection Of Essays • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... grows in chalky districts, the Stone Parsley, Sison, or breakstone, was formerly known as the "Hone-wort," from curing a "hone," or boil, on the cheek. It was believed at one time to break a glass goblet or tumbler ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... country. Likewise [it is advisable to restrict their coming] in order to preserve the friendship of the emperor; since, if we do not retain them in that kingdom, there will be no occasion for any event of treachery that should force us to break friendship with him. I petition your Highness to order this straitly, and that the said judge also have ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVIII, 1617-1620 • Various

... material and spiritual worlds, and the uninterrupted mechanism of becoming. Besides the twisting of ethical concepts just mentioned, we may briefly note the most striking of the other difficulties and contradictions which Spinoza left unexplained. There is a break between his endeavor to exalt the absolute high above the phenomenal world of individual existence, and, at the same time, to bring the former into the closest possible conjunction with the latter, to make it dwell therein—a break ...
— History Of Modern Philosophy - From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time • Richard Falckenberg

... I break your bonds and masterships, And I unchain the slave: Free be his heart and hand henceforth, As ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XI., February, 1863, No. LXIV. • Various

... blest, Nor fear, nor grief, shall break my rest; Bear them, ye vagrant winds, away, And drown ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... poverty-stricken workingman of the city—to many a dreamer and philanthropist—to all the extreme radicals, they were but a shadowy will-of-the-wisp that glimmered briefly and perhaps indicated faintly the gorgeousness of the great day that much later might break upon them. Between these extremes of reaction and radicalism fell the bulk of the bourgeoisie and of the peasantry—the bulk of the nation— and it is in their sense that we shall try to make clear the meaning of ...
— A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. • Carlton J. H. Hayes

... next desired to look at a natural tunnel in the outer cliff, which pierces it through from one end to the other. Then his attention is directed to a lighthouse built on a reef of rocks detached from the land; and he is told of the great waves which break over the top of the building during the winter storms. Lastly, he is requested to inspect a quaint protuberance in a pile of granite at a little distance off, which bears a remote resemblance to a gigantic human face, adorned with a short beard; and which, he is informed, is considered ...
— Rambles Beyond Railways; - or, Notes in Cornwall taken A-foot • Wilkie Collins

... whole party were thankful to have recovered her without having to fight, as they had expected; though Gerald declared that he was sorry not to be able to break a lance in her service, against the ...
— The Young Llanero - A Story of War and Wild Life in Venezuela • W.H.G. Kingston

... as was the blood of those around him. Some of the people under the galleries, who could not see what was going on, thought the officers were crying fire, to break up the meeting. Very quietly Samuel Adams raised his hand. The people became calm. The officers left the building, and the town went on with its business. The ...
— Daughters of the Revolution and Their Times - 1769 - 1776 A Historical Romance • Charles Carleton Coffin

... while asleep, is full of hope; but when he wakens he dresses in mufti, in a soft doublet, a cloak, and sandals; takes his sword (swords were then worn as part of civil costume), and the ancestral sceptre, which he wields in peaceful assemblies. Day dawns, and "he bids the heralds...." A break here occurs, according ...
— Homer and His Age • Andrew Lang

... against the Vigilance movement as of the same stripe as the criminals who menaced society. There were many worthy people whose education thoroughly inclined them towards formal law, and who, therefore, when the actual break came, found themselves ...
— The Forty-Niners - A Chronicle of the California Trail and El Dorado • Stewart Edward White

... jigger, kittereen^, mailstate^, manomotor^, rig, rockaway^, prairie schooner [U.S.], shay, sloven, team, tonga^, wheel; hobbyhorse, go-cart; cycle; bicycle, bike, two-wheeler; tricycle, velocipede, quadricycle^. equipage, turn-out; coach, chariot, phaeton, break, mail phaeton, wagonette, drag, curricle^, tilbury^, whisky, landau, barouche, victoria, brougham, clarence^, calash, caleche [Fr.], britzka^, araba^, kibitka^; berlin; sulky, desobligeant [Fr.], sociable, vis-a-vis, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... the lot," he said. "The flow of inspiration has ceased. The magic fire has gone out. Break it to 'em, Crump. For ...
— The Prince and Betty - (American edition) • P. G. Wodehouse

... and about $200 in loose gold and silver coin. During these proceedings Stumpy maintained a silence as impassive as the dead on his left, a gravity as inscrutable as that of the newly born on his right. Only one incident occurred to break the monotony of the curious procession. As Kentuck bent over the candle-box half curiously, the child turned, and, in a spasm of pain, caught at his groping finger, and held it fast for a moment. Kentuck looked foolish and embarrassed. Something like a blush tried ...
— Selected Stories • Bret Harte

... who had the ordering of affairs, hung on to it to the last; hung on to it so resolutely, indeed, that when at length the ship would have been capsized, if still persisting in locking arms with the body; then, when the command was given to break clear from it, such was the immovable strain upon the timber-heads to which the fluke-chains and cables were fastened, that it was impossible to cast them off. Meantime everything in the Pequod was aslant. ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville

... that they have failed to notice the Medcrofts up to this time. Secretly, Edith has ambitions. She has gone to the Lord Mayor's dinners and to the Royal Antiquarians and to Sir John Rodney's and a lot of other functions on the outer rim, but she's never been able to break through the crust and taste the real sweets of London society. My dear Roxbury, the Odell-Carneys entertain the nobility without compunction, and they've been known to hobnob with royalty. Mrs. Odell-Carney ...
— The Husbands of Edith • George Barr McCutcheon

... worms, especially those in the spleen. The patient was to eat nothing after supper for three nights; as soon as he went to bed, he was carefully to lie on one side, and when he grew weary, to turn upon the other. He must also duly confine his two eyes to the same object, and by no means break wind at both ends together without manifest occasion. These prescriptions diligently observed, the worms would void insensibly by perspiration ascending through ...
— A Tale of a Tub • Jonathan Swift

... and wide-reaching service. The English had confidential agents in all the shipping offices, whose services had for the most part been acquired by bribery. At various times attempts were made to break into Herr Albert's office, to learn the combination for opening his safe, to get hold of papers through the charwomen and other employees, and even to rob him personally of papers. The control of the American port authorities was ...
— My Three Years in America • Johann Heinrich Andreas Hermann Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff

... Republics, the enemy show an increasing tendency to confine themselves to certain neighbourhoods, which have always been their chief, though till recently by no means their exclusive, centres of strength.... From time to time the commandos try to break out of these districts and to extend the scene of operations. But the failure of the latest of these raids—Botha's bold attempt to invade Natal—shows the disadvantages under which the Boers now labour in attempting ...
— Lord Milner's Work in South Africa - From its Commencement in 1897 to the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902 • W. Basil Worsfold

... it?" said she gruffly, as she opened the door; "don't you think better break de door down at once-rapping as if you was guine to tear off de knocker—is dat de way, gal, you comes to quality's houses? You lived here long nuff to larn better dan dat—and dis is twice I've been to de door in ...
— The Garies and Their Friends • Frank J. Webb

... came to the smooth, wide, high roads overlooking the valley, she put him down, and he would run on ahead, crying, "Turn for a walk, Mummie, turn along," and his little feet went so quickly beneath his frock that it seemed as if he were on wheels. She followed, often forced to break into a run, tremulous lest he should fall. They descended the hill into the ornamental park, and spent happy hours amid geometrically-designed flower-beds and curving walks. She ventured with him as far as the old Dulwich village, and they strolled through the long street. Behind ...
— Esther Waters • George Moore

... and notwithstanding the contrary advice of Scipio, the counsels seem to have sunk deep into the mind of Jugurtha. On his return he was received with every demonstration of honor by Micipsa; nor did he allow his ambitious projects to break forth during the lifetime of the old man. Micipsa, on his death-bed, though but too clearly foreseeing what would happen, commended the two young princes to the care of Jugurtha; but at the very first interview which took place between them after his decease (B.C. 118) their dissensions ...
— A Smaller History of Rome • William Smith and Eugene Lawrence

... was certain that, just then, Mrs. Redden did not like Wango; at least she did not like to have him take her candy, break the jar and scatter the jelly beans all over ...
— Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue • Laura Lee Hope

... Maurice felt restless, almost as he had felt on the night when he had been left alone on the terrace. Then he had been companioned by a sensation of desertion, and had longed to break out into some new life, to take an ally against the secret enemy who was attacking him. He had wanted to have his Emile Artois as Hermione had hers. That was the truth of the matter. And his want had led him down to the sea. ...
— The Call of the Blood • Robert Smythe Hichens

... crew. He was in Roger's class; I remembered how, even then, he had dragged Roger down to some boys' club of his to give a boxing lesson once to some of his proteges. He and Russell Dodge had a notable and historic quarrel once because Tip had refused to break an engagement in order to take one of Russell's many feminine incumbrances to a dance. Tip had steadily refused to accept the obligation, and had endured very patiently a vast amount of hectoring from Russell, who was then as now a trifle snobbish and unsteady; but had finally ...
— Margarita's Soul - The Romantic Recollections of a Man of Fifty • Ingraham Lovell

... instructions, I proceeded to the extreme front, made the requisite examination of our position and that of the enemy, and soon came back. I reported that the houses on the left of the causeway were built up continuously to the battery at the Garita, we could easily break through the walls from house to house; and, under perfect cover, reach the top of a three-story building, with flat roof and stone parapet, within 40 yards of the battery. A fire of musketry from that roof would make the works untenable; ...
— Company 'A', corps of engineers, U.S.A., 1846-'48, in the Mexican war • Gustavus Woodson Smith

... some of Emerson's pages it seems as if another Arcadia, or the new Atlantis, had emerged as the fortunate island of Great Britain, or that he had reached a heaven on earth where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal,—or if they do, never think of denying that they have done it. But this was a generation ago, when the noun "shoddy," and the verb "to scamp," had not grown such familiar terms to English ears as they are to-day. Emerson saw the country on ...
— Ralph Waldo Emerson • Oliver Wendell Holmes

... that she ministered physic by the help of God, and with the cunning of Master Gerardo of Nerbona, who was her father. The King, hearing this, and thinking that peradventure she was sent of God, asked what might follow, if she caused him to break his resolution, and did not heal him. She said, "Let me be kept in what guard you list, and if I do not heal you let me be burnt; but, if I do, what recompense shall I have?" He answered that, since she was a maiden, he would bestow her in marriage upon a gentleman ...
— Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. • H. N. Hudson

... work automatically. In her mind there was pleasure at the thought that Lawrence was listening to her movements. But she was filled with a dead weight that seemed likely to break her down with its dreadful pressure. Vaguely she wished that she had never seen Philip, even that she had never seen Lawrence, or that she had perished with ...
— Claire - The Blind Love of a Blind Hero, By a Blind Author • Leslie Burton Blades

... assured him of my readiness to surrender my effects whenever he should think proper to demand them. He was nettled at my insinuation, which he thought proceeded from my distrust of his friendship; and begged I would never talk to him in that strain again, unless I had a mind to break his heart. ...
— The Adventures of Roderick Random • Tobias Smollett

... use," Raed said, his voice seeming to break the spell. "We couldn't have got off to the schooner. See how swiftly the ship comes on! If the captain had waited for us to pull off, or even started up and let us go off diagonally, the ship would have come so near, that there would have ...
— Left on Labrador - or, The cruise of the Schooner-yacht 'Curlew.' as Recorded by 'Wash.' • Charles Asbury Stephens

... age of eighty-four, to which Lord Lyndhurst had arrived. The important event of Lord John Russell's resignation, announced by the Duke of Newcastle, prevented the discussion of Lord Lyndhurst's motion, and caused the house to break up early. ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... mankind were in those 'dark' ages perpetually revolving upon that 'life beyond life,' which the omnipresent religion of that fanatical age loved to people with appalling phantoms and harrowing terrors. Dante determined to anticipate his final doom, and still, in the flesh, to break through the threshold of eternity, and explore the kingdom of death.... No poet ever struck upon a subject to which every fibre in the heart of his contemporaries more readily responded than Dante. It is not for me to test ...
— Purgatory • Mary Anne Madden Sadlier

... Elohistic from the Jehovistic portions of the Pentateuch; and, save in the case of a few sporadic verses, most Biblical critics coincide in the separation which they make between the two. But the attempts which have been made to break up the Iliad and Odyssey have resulted in no such harmonious agreement. There are as many systems as there are critics, and naturally enough. For the Iliad and the Odyssey are as much alike as two peas, and the resemblance which holds between the two holds also ...
— Myths and Myth-Makers - Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology • John Fiske

... clinched little brown fist. His lips, slightly apart, emitted the softly drawn regular breath of profound slumber, and the smile which some pleasant thought had conjured up before he closed his eyes still lingered round his mouth. Katherine longed to kiss him, but feared to break his profound and restful slumbers. She passed to Charlie. His attitude was quite different. He had thrown the clothes from his chest, and his pinky white throat was bare; one little hand lay open on the page of a picture-book at which he had been looking when sleep overtook him; the other ...
— A Crooked Path - A Novel • Mrs. Alexander

... Alvarado, and the left under Holguin, supported by a gallant body of cavaliers. His artillery, too insignificant to be of much account, was also in the centre. He proposed himself to lead the van, and to break the first lance with the enemy; but from this chivalrous display he was dissuaded by his officers, who reminded him that too much depended on his life to have it thus wantonly exposed. The governor contented himself, therefore, with heading a body of ...
— History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William Hickling Prescott

... outrage of this and other similar acts have embittered the Moquis until they have lost what little respect they ever had for Christianity and civilization. The policy of the government is to make them do whatever they do not want to do, to break up the family and scatter its members. The treatment has created two factions among the Moquis known as the "hostiles" who are only hostile in opposing oppression and any change in their religious faith and customs; and the "friendlies" who are willing to obey the boss placed ...
— Arizona Sketches • Joseph A. Munk

... were not these sympathetic chords torn rudely asunder ere they could vibrate with such anguish! Why did not my heart turn into stone ere it took root in such deadly bitter soil! Ah well, love is common and grief is common—'Never morning wore to evening but some heart did break.' And I am only a drop in the great ocean—the great sea of ...
— Marguerite Verne • Agatha Armour

... a pretty garden! I'll just slip in there, and find out where that path will take me.' And then—you're either thrown out, and the gate slammed after you, or you lose yourself in a maze and you can't get out—until you break out. But does that ever teach you a lesson? No! Instead of going ahead along the straight and narrow way, and keeping out of temptation, you halt at the very next gate you come to, just as though you had never seen a gate before, and exclaim: 'Now, this ...
— Captain Macklin • Richard Harding Davis

... in the case establishes that before enlistment the beneficiary had a sore on his leg which was quite troublesome, which suppurated, and after healing would break out again. ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 3 (of 3) of Volume 8: Grover Cleveland, First Term. • Grover Cleveland

... that you are simply a nervous wreck, and you would break down entirely without the sea-voyage and the change of scene," said Mrs. Voorhees, in her smooth, emotionless voice and with a covert glance at Maria. Ida had confided to her the attitude which she knew Maria took with reference to ...
— By the Light of the Soul - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... his visitors had begun to display increased interest, he proceeded with more deliberation, as if trying to heighten their curiosity. "The night before the Collinses separated, or about two o'clock that morning I should say, a fellow tried to break into the post office. Luckily there was a meeting of the lodge that night and a sociable after it. On the way home, Hiram Barker and Syd Johnson passed the post office just as the robber was forcing ...
— The Substitute Prisoner • Max Marcin

... bestial, human brood,— What use, in having that to play with? How many have I made away with! And ever circulates a newer, fresher blood. It makes me furious, such things beholding: From Water, Earth, and Air unfolding, A thousand germs break forth and grow, In dry, and wet, and warm, and chilly; And had I not the Flame reserved, why, really, There's nothing special of my ...
— Faust • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

... mine," she thought (I suppose we'll have some), "shall at least not pose. They may break all the commandments, but if they turn somersaults to be looked at I shall drop them into a public creche and ...
— Dangerous Ages • Rose Macaulay

... invariably "watering order with numnahs," the numnah being a felt saddle-cloth without stirrups. Every man without exception rides out—no dodging is permitted—and the moment the malicious fiend of an orderly officer gets clear of the barracks he gives the word "Trot!" Six miles of it without a break is the set allowance; and it beats vinegar, pickles, tea smoked in a tobacco-pipe, or any other nostrum, as an effectual generator of sobriety. Six miles at the full trot without stirrups on a rough horse I can conscientiously recommend ...
— Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places • Archibald Forbes

... Miss Potterson. 'Leave him. You needn't break with him altogether, but leave him. Do well away from him; not because of what I have told you to-night—we'll pass no judgment upon that, and we'll hope it may not be—but because of what I have urged on you before. No matter whether it's owing to ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens

... Mrs. Sommers hold yourselves apart," Webber went on with friendly warmth, "as if you were too good for ordinary company. Now I know you don't really think so at all. As soon as you break the ice, you will be all right. There was Lemenueville. He started in here the right way, took to the Presbyterian church, the fashionable one on Parkside Avenue, and made himself agreeable. He's built up a splendid practice, ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... the ground in the bright glare of the flambeaux. She awoke, therefore, continually to the sense of restored happiness; and at length fell finally asleep, to wake no more until the morning trumpet, at the break of day, proclaimed the approaching preparations for the general movement ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... in acids with effervescence, which is only a motion excited in the solvent by the disengagement of a great number of bubbles of air or aeriform fluid, which proceed from the surface of the metal, and break at ...
— Elements of Chemistry, - In a New Systematic Order, Containing all the Modern Discoveries • Antoine Lavoisier

... difficult, and many of its signs dubious. They aim at breaking down those barriers between the different states of Italy, relics of a barbarous state of polity, artificially kept up by the craft of her foes. While anxious not to break down what is really native to the Italian character,—defences and differences that give individual genius a chance to grow and the fruits of each region to ripen in their natural way,—they aim at a harmony ...
— At Home And Abroad - Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe • Margaret Fuller Ossoli

... the shunt circuit, and which is caused by the demagnetization, is proportional to the mass of iron and wire of which the machine is composed, or proportional to its inductive capacity. This current is purely a secondary effect, of short duration, and only occurs once at each break of the commutator. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884 • Various

... to Professor Brierly over the wire had a break in it. In the voice it was difficult to recognize the finely modulated diction of ...
— Death Points a Finger • Will Levinrew

... life and limb for the safety of each and all. And I promise most especially to honour and respect the wives, the daughters and the betrothed brides of all who belong to this fellowship, and to defend them from harm and insult, even as my own mother. And if I break any promise of this oath, may my flesh be torn from my limbs and my limbs from my body, one by one, to be burned with fire and the ashes thereof scattered ...
— Marietta - A Maid of Venice • F. Marion Crawford

... splitting for a hedge, Had joined their rows to cheer the active headsman; Perchance, in mockery, they'd gird the skull With a hop-leaf crown! Bitter the brewing, Noll!) Are crowns the end-all of ambition? Remember Charles Stuart! and that they who make can break! This same Whitehall may black its front with crape, And this broad window be the portal twice To lead upon a scaffold! Frown! or laugh! Laugh on as they did at Cassandra's speech! But mark—the prophetess was right! Still laugh, Like the credulous Ethiop in his faith in stars! But give one thought ...
— Poems • Victor Hugo

... realized that he was facing an enemy in battle. His eyes did not blink, so intently were they glued upon the dim, uncertain objects that moved in the distance. The sword at his side was gripped in a fierce but unconscious grasp. He placed his hand over his throbbing heart; a damp chill seemed to break through ...
— Nedra • George Barr McCutcheon

... staid a little while talking with him and the ladies, and then away to my Lord Crew's, and then did by the by make a visit to my Lord Crew, and had some good discourse with him, he doubting that all will break in pieces in the kingdom; and that the taxes now coming out, which will tax the same man in three or four several capacities, as for lands, office, profession, and money at interest, will be the hardest that ever come out; and do think that we ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... Soon he heard twigs break under the feet of one approaching, so he looked through his blanket without rising. Behold, a woman of the olden days was coming. She wore a skin dress with long fringe. A buffalo robe was fastened around her ...
— Myths and Legends of the Great Plains • Unknown

... spirit in literature, she does not consider it necessary to talk of 'blawing' and 'snawing.' As for the garden play, Our Lady of the Broken Heart, as it is called, the bright, birdlike snatches of song that break in here and there—as the singing does in Pippa Passes—form a very welcome relief to the somewhat ordinary movement of the blank verse, and suggest to us again where Miss Robinson's real power lies. Not a poet in the true creative sense, she ...
— Reviews • Oscar Wilde

... her friends liked. They noticed with sorrow that the sunshine wore off as the day rolled on; that though ready to smile upon occasion, her face always settled again into a gravity they thought altogether unsuitable. Mrs. Lindsay fancied she knew the cause, and resolved to break ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Susan Warner

... left his sceptre to his grandson Mautenar, the son of Marasar, who had probably died before his father. Two young and inexperienced princes confront one the other in the two neighbour lands, each distrustful of his rival, each covetous of glory, each hopeful of success if war should break out. True, by treaty the two kings were friends and allies—by treaty the two nations were bound to abstain from all aggression by the one upon the other: but such bonds are like the "green withes" that bound Samson, when the desire ...
— Ancient Egypt • George Rawlinson

... have gone out of her. And in his own heart Sydney raged and fretted—for why, he said to himself, should she not be like other women?—why, if she had a grudge against him, should she not tell him so? She might reproach him as bitterly as she pleased; the storm would spend itself in time and break in sunshine; but this terrible silence was like a nightmare about them both! He wished that he had the courage to break through it, but he was experiencing the truth of the saying that conscience makes cowards of us all, and he dared not break ...
— Name and Fame - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... what do you mean?" said Nigel; "I will break your head, you drunken knave, if you ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

... mind a multitude of thoughts and endeavoured to arrive at some conclusion. Alas! To me the idea of an immediate union with my Elizabeth was one of horror and dismay. I was bound by a solemn promise which I had not yet fulfilled and dared not break, or if I did, what manifold miseries might not impend over me and my devoted family! Could I enter into a festival with this deadly weight yet hanging round my neck and bowing me to the ground? I must perform my engagement ...
— Frankenstein - or The Modern Prometheus • Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley

... Achan!... May the Holy One trample on thee and hang thee up in an infernal fork, as was done to the five kings of the Amorites!... May God set a nail to your skull, and pound it in with a hammer, as Jael did unto Sisera!... May... Sother... break thy head and cut off thy hands, as was done to the cursed Dagon!... May God hang thee in a hellish yoke, as seven men were hanged by the sons of Saul!" And so on, through five pages of ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... rolled above; for one of the frequent storms of the early summer was about to break. The spear dropped from the prince's hand; he sat down, and cast his ...
— The Pilgrims Of The Rhine • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... mellow and humane. In comparison there is indeed something which people call ruthless about the air of America, especially the American cities. The bishop may push open the door without an apology, but he would not break open the door with a truncheon; but the Irish policeman's truncheon hits both ways. It may be brutal to the tenement dweller as well as to the bishop; but the difference and distinction is that it might ...
— What I Saw in America • G. K. Chesterton

... still less of its effect on consciousness, there is here no question; for there enter into the calculation only the points T{1}, T{2}, T{3}, ... taken on the flux, never the flux itself. We may narrow the time considered as much as we will, that is, break up at will the interval between two consecutive divisions T{n} and T{n-|-1}; but it is always with points, and with points only, that we are dealing. What we retain of the movement of the mobile T are ...
— Creative Evolution • Henri Bergson

... way to the ripening seed. In the grasses the very root perishes by the time the grain is yellow, and comes up whole if you try to break the stem. They "reign in life" above through the indwelling seed, while all that is "corruptible" goes down into dust below. They have let all go to life—the enduring life: they are not taken up with the dying—that ...
— Parables of the Christ-life • I. Lilias Trotter

... laughing, "this is not the first time I have been paid by relations to break off the marriages I had formed. Egad! if one could open a bureau to make married people single, one would soon be a Croesus! Well, then, this decides me to complete the union between Monsieur Goupille and Mademoiselle de Courval. I had balanced a little hitherto between the epicier ...
— Night and Morning, Volume 3 • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... them into hopeless slavery is the system of indebtedness which is practiced in these places. The one object of those concerned in the subjugation of a girl who has become a victim of the wiles of the white slaver is to break down all hope of escape from the life of shame and bitterness into which she has been entrapped. Nothing has been found so effective a means to this end as the debtor system. The first thing a girl is compelled to do on being thrown into one of these houses is to buy an expensive wardrobe ...
— Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls - War on the White Slave Trade • Various

... the matter is that every human being is still but a fresh edition of the primordial cell with the latest additions and corrections; there has been no leap nor break in continuity anywhere; the man of to-day is the primordial cell of millions of years ago as truly as he is the himself of yesterday; he can only be denied to be the one on grounds that will prove him not to be the other. Everyone is both himself and all his direct ...
— The Humour of Homer and Other Essays • Samuel Butler

... enough not to break in upon her reflections by any attempt at conversation, for it seemed to me that what I had just witnessed had been a sudden and terrible crisis, not only in the life of Sir Cyril, but also in that of the girl whose loveliness was dimly revealed ...
— The Ghost - A Modern Fantasy • Arnold Bennett

... of Indian Affairs, the Indian agents, and the sub-agents were given the right to call upon the military forces to remove all trespassers in the Indian country, to procure the arrest and trial of all Indians accused of committing any crime, and to break up any distillery set ...
— Old Fort Snelling - 1819-1858 • Marcus L. Hansen

... John without further words told her she was to go in front with the dibble and make holes for the potatoes, for an absent-minded person could not be trusted with the seed potatoes— she would be sure to break the shoots. The next week they were engaged in sowing French beans and scarlet runners, and Evelyn thought it rather unreasonable of the sister to expect her to know by instinct that French beans should not be set as closely together ...
— Sister Teresa • George Moore

... and hoped that they were rid of him for ever; but now he was among them again, rasped by the memory of real or fancied wrongs. The count, however, had no time for quarrelling. The king had told him to bury old animosities and forget the past, and for the present he was too busy to break the royal injunction. [Footnote: Instruction pour le Sieur Comte de Frontenac, 7 Juin, 1689.] He caused boats to be made ready, and in spite of incessant rains pushed up the river to Montreal. Here he found Denonville and his frightened wife. Every thing was in ...
— Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV • Francis Parkman

... country's old gallant foe, Soult, was again hailed with enthusiasm, though there was just a shade of being exultingly equal to the situation, in the readiness with which, on his having the misfortune to break a stirrup, a worthy firm of saddlers came forward with a supply of the stirrups which Napoleon had used in one of his campaigns. And there might have been something significant to the visitor, in the rapturous greeting ...
— Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen V.1. • Sarah Tytler

... philanthropy, judging from the enormous gardens adjoining his handsome chateau, and perhaps his love of flowers—always a most humanizing taste—has set the example. These brilliant parterres, whether seen in the vast domains of the master or the humble homesteads of the men, delightfully break the red and white uniformity of the City of Chocolate, flowers above, around, on every side. There is also a profusion of fruit and vegetables, land quite recently laid under cultivation soon yielding returns in ...
— Holidays in Eastern France • Matilda Betham-Edwards

... and have still two books of "Paradise Lost" to read, and am wondering what is going to happen to Adam and Eve. I was very miserable when I found she ate the forbidden fruit. She had made such fair promises to be good. Alas, alas! why did she break them? That story of the Fall, though I suppose nobody thinks it verbally true, is always to me most full of deep meaning, and seems to be the story of every mortal man and woman born ...
— Lady John Russell • Desmond MacCarthy and Agatha Russell

... great sovereign, but she meddled with very small matters. She disliked the smell of woad, a plant used for blue dye, and thereupon prohibited its cultivation. She was displeased with long swords and high ruffs, and commissioned her officers to break the swords and abate the ruffs. None of the nobility dared marry without her consent; no one could travel without her permission. Foreign commerce was subject to her capricious will. The star chamber, the court of high commission, the court martial, the warrants of the secretary of state and ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... and precedent, we should rather count ourselves fortunate if our enemy, in the next naval war we have to wage, does not strike two days before blazoning forth his intention, instead of two days after. The tremendous and decisive results of success for the national cause are enough to break down all the restraining influences of the code of international law ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... to my cheeks, and I instinctively dropped the veil which I had raised a moment before. As we entered the carriage, which had been kept in waiting, the horses, high-spirited and impatient, threatened to break loose from the driver's control,—when the stranger, coming rapidly forward, stood at their heads till their transient rebellion was over. It was but an instant; for as Richard leaned from the carriage window to thank ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz

... not really inconsistent. So long as rule followed precedent,—so long as its commands, however harsh, did not conflict with sentiment and tradition,—that rule was regarded as religious, and there was absolute submission. But when rulers presumed to break with ethical usage,—in a spirit of reckless cruelty or greed,—then the people might feel it a religious obligation to resist with all the zeal of voluntary martyrdom. The danger-line for every form of local tyranny was departure from precedent. ...
— Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation • Lafcadio Hearn

... them in the chase. They have generally long silken hair upon their quarters, shoulders, ears, and tail; and I think them as handsome, and considerably more powerful and sagacious, than our own greyhounds. I have sometimes seen a spirited horse break loose, and run away at full speed, when one of these dogs has set after him like an arrow, and soon getting ahead of him, taken an opportunity of seizing the bridle in his teeth, which he held so firmly, that though he was not strong enough to stop the horse, yet, as ...
— Anecdotes of Dogs • Edward Jesse

... not that the sound of a horse's hoofs?" cried Lady Cameron, starting up to look down the road. "Yes, there comes Vane and—Mrs. Mencke, he is riding at a break-neck pace! Can he—do you believe he ...
— His Heart's Queen • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... fond of me." I hope so. "I have a relation far abroad who is very fond of me too." I know so. "I shall live long." More is the pity. "I shall marry and have three children." Quite enough. "I shall take easily to love, but it will not break my heart." I am glad to hear that. "I shall cross the sea before I see London again." Ah! I am afraid not. "The end of my summer will be happier than its beginning"—and that may very easily be. For that I gave my prophetess a shilling. Oh, Zingarella! my blessing on your black ...
— Records of a Girlhood • Frances Anne Kemble

... of machine sewing is to be done—such as household linen, sheets, pillow cases and underwear—it is a good plan to do all the basting and hand work first and keep the machine stitching for a rainy or a damp day, as the thread is then less apt to break. A current of air or a breeze from an open window on a dry day will often cause the thread to snap. For the same reason the machine should never stand ...
— Textiles and Clothing • Kate Heintz Watson

... carried, as usual, in my travelling-box, which as I have already described, was a very convenient closet, of twelve feet wide. And I had ordered a hammock to be fixed, by silken ropes from the four corners at the top, to break the jolts, when a servant carried me before him on horseback, as I sometimes desired; and would often sleep in my hammock, while we were upon the road. On the roof of my closet, not directly over the middle of ...
— Gulliver's Travels - into several remote nations of the world • Jonathan Swift

... gentle and easy, would suddenly become hasty and violent, and would break out into terrible explosions when a sudden annoyance set him beside himself; for instance, when he was the butt of some ill-natured trick, or when, in spite of the lucidity of his explanations, he felt that he had not been properly understood. Perhaps ...
— Fabre, Poet of Science • Dr. G.V. (C.V.) Legros

... an incurable maim or break, because the next statute seems to provide for injuries which can ...
— The Twelve Tables • Anonymous

... art thou also become like one of us?' 'Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken': personally, he will be harmed; and his opinions, and his books, and his talk, and all his argumentation, will come to nothing, like the waves that break into impotent foam against the ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Matthew Chaps. IX to XXVIII • Alexander Maclaren

... astride the strong branches projecting horizontally into space. If I slip or if the support breaks, I shall come to grief in the midst of the angry Bees. I do not slip and the support does not break. With the bent switch which my brother hands me, I bring the finest clusters within my reach. I soon fill my pockets. Moving backwards, still straddling my branch, I recover terra firma. O wondrous days of litheness and assurance, when, for ...
— Bramble-bees and Others • J. Henri Fabre

... buckled, wrapped itself around the car, but did not break. Jason flew off the seat and into the padded dash. By the time Kerk had the warped door open, he realized that the ride was over. Kerk must have seen the spin of his eyeballs because he didn't talk, just pulled Jason out and threw him onto the ...
— Deathworld • Harry Harrison

... In the kingdom of Canga, as we call it, falleth so much snow, that the houses being buried in it, the inhabitants keepe within doores certaine moneths of the yeere, hauing no way to come foorth except they break vp the tiles. Whirlewindes most vehement, earthquakes so common, that the Iapans dread such kind of feares litle or nothing at all. The countrey is ful of siluer mines otherwise barren, not so much by fault of nature, as through the slouthfulnesse ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of - The English Nation, Vol. 11 • Richard Hakluyt

... a little. They partly break it off, and Andrey Andreitch, to his immense satisfaction, feels his fingers under the ...
— The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... "All right, break it up!" Muller ordered. "You men get back to your work. And you, Dr. Pietro—my contract calls for me to deliver you to Saturn's moon, but it doesn't forbid me to haul you the rest of the way in irons. I won't have this ...
— Let'em Breathe Space • Lester del Rey

... republic. A man of low birth, Orthagoras, obtained the tyranny, and it continued in his family for a century, the longest tyranny in Greece, because the gentlest. Sicyon was of no marked influence at the period we are about to enter, though governed by an able tyrant, Clisthenes, whose policy it was to break the Dorian nobility, while uniting, as in a common interest, popular laws and ...
— Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... the fiend's eyes as his face was turned towards them. When they struck their weapons glanced harmlessly off Grendel's scaly hide. The struggle continued for some time, and the hall was an utter wreck within, when Grendel, worsted for once, tried to break away and rush out into the night; but Beowulf held him fast in the grip which no man on earth could equal or endure, and the monster writhed in anguish as he vainly strove to free himself—vainly, ...
— Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race • Maud Isabel Ebbutt

... This necessarily caused a break in the proceedings. Mr. Fox suspended his cross-examination and in a few minutes more, the judge adjourned the court. As the prisoner rose and turned to pass out, I cast him a hurried glance to see what effect had been made upon him by this ingenuous outburst from one he had possibly ...
— The House of the Whispering Pines • Anna Katharine Green

... of blue (hoist side), gold, and blue with the head of a black trident centered on the gold band; the trident head represents independence and a break with the past (the colonial coat of ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... wrathfully. "I'd like to break it over your misshapen back! Here, Margery, don't fret. ...
— Prisoners of Hope - A Tale of Colonial Virginia • Mary Johnston

... the world's first modern democracy after its break with Great Britain (1776) and the adoption of a constitution (1789). During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the North American continent and acquired ...
— The 2001 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... been two periods in English history during which these general tendencies have been especially marked. One was at the close of the Middle Ages, and the other during the reign of George III. The break-up of the manorial system, the growth of a body of mobile labour, and of capital seeking investment, the discovery of new worlds and new markets, heralded the advent of the middle class and of the commercial age. ...
— The History of England - A Study in Political Evolution • A. F. Pollard

... shock she was deafened by a crash that rolled among the cloud-banks in tremendous echoes, and before it died away another blaze leaped down. It was rather a continuous stream of light than a flash, because it did not break off but, beginning overhead, ran far across the lake. The next enveloped the canoes in an awful light and she felt her hair crackle ...
— The Lure of the North • Harold Bindloss

... Politically the break was bound to come, for even when Dickens was published Gilbert Chesterton had reached the stage of saying "as much as ever I did, more than ever I did, I believe in Liberalism. But there was a rosy time of innocence when I believed in Liberals." At this time too ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Maisie Ward

... the little man seemed about to go. He stretched himself, and in order not to break off too abruptly, added: "He is said to ...
— Hunger • Knut Hamsun

... be very pleasant for those who came in contact with it, but it was very effective for the purpose aimed at. In sea parlance Kettle had to "break up" some half-dozen of them before all hands acquiesced to his dictatorship; but they were quick to see there was a Man over them this time, and involuntarily they admired his virility even while they rubbed ruefully at their bumps; and during the times of stress that came afterward, ...
— A Master of Fortune • Cutcliffe Hyne

... What a silence there is upon the night! Not a breath of air now to break up into a thousand brilliant ripples the long reflection of the August moon, or to stir the foliage of the chestnuts; not a voice in the village; no splash of oar upon the lake. All life seems at perfect rest, and the solemn stillness that reigns about the topmost glaciers of S. Gothard has spread ...
— A Stable for Nightmares - or Weird Tales • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... has yet been said; but intuition is a faithful forerunner, and ere another word is spoken, I know well enough that the khan and the colonel have been sent to break the disagreeable news that I am to be taken to Herat, and that Kiftan Sahib and Bottle Green have dropped in out of curiosity to see how ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle Volume II. - From Teheran To Yokohama • Thomas Stevens

... Hence no trains of thought arise in their own minds. And having nothing in their minds which seeks utterance, they remain quiet. Now the practice of Interrogative Analysis compels such persons to interrogate—to propose questions—to think. And when such mental activity becomes strong, it will break out in conversations by interrogatories and critical and ...
— Assimilative Memory - or, How to Attend and Never Forget • Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)

... spider-snake! I could break his long neck. Yes—you do like him! I saw it when you met him. You're throwing me down because you ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon

... from Goa had a skirmish at break of day, on 28[th] September, with the enemy, wherein they behaved themselves bravely, but that on an attempt to burn some villages afterwards, they advised the enemy of it, and deserted with ...
— The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago • John Biddulph

... room feeling bewildered, half frightened, and yet elated and pleased. Something had come to break at last the long monotony of the life which she felt was crushing the spirit out of her. She was going to a place where it seemed that she must surely have news of Cuthbert, and where, if she did not pass him on the road, she would certainly be ...
— The Lost Treasure of Trevlyn - A Story of the Days of the Gunpowder Plot • Evelyn Everett-Green

... it, sir, without knowing it, ever since I came here. I say "ever since," as if I had been here a week. The truth is, we came here (my sister and I) to quarrel with you, and affront you, and break away again.' ...
— The Mystery of Edwin Drood • Charles Dickens

... too long, and it is often a serious consideration with the designer how to break up the surfaces to be covered so that only shortish stitches need be used. You might follow the veining of a leaf, for example, and work from vein to vein. But all leaves are not naturally veined in the most accommodating manner. Treatment is accordingly necessary, and so we arrive at a convention ...
— Art in Needlework - A Book about Embroidery • Lewis F. Day

... was now so certain that, on July 3, Cervera's fleet dashed from the harbor and attempted to break through the blockading fleet. A running sea fight followed, and in a few hours all six of the Spanish vessels were shattered wrecks on the coast of Cuba. Not one of our ...
— A Brief History of the United States • John Bach McMaster

... more from the Pope to you, and then I will execute the orders given me. He says that you must bring your work to me here, and that after I have seen it put into a box and sealed, I must take it to him. He engages his word not to break the seal, and to return the piece to you untouched. But this much he wants to have done, in order to preserve his own honour in the affair." In return to this speech, I answered, laughing, that I would very willingly give up my work in the way he mentioned, ...
— The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini • Benvenuto Cellini

... suddenly rising to his feet and crooking his neck like a crane, "I guess you know who I am. I can make or break any man in this country, and I'm ...
— Silver and Gold - A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining Camp • Dane Coolidge

... Churchill." The revolt against 'the old gang' began on the Liberal side, and Charles Dilke was the chief beginner of it. Although the new Reform Act had led to far-reaching change in the quality of the House of Commons, the choice by Mr. Gladstone of the members of the Ministry made it plain that no break with the past was contemplated by the leaders. Lowe, whose anti-democratic utterances on Reform had been denounced by Dilke at the Cambridge Union, was Chancellor of the Exchequer; and only half the Cabinet were commoners. Among these was indeed Bright; but the only other Minister whose ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke V1 • Stephen Gwynn



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