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Caress   /kərˈɛs/   Listen
Caress

verb
(past & past part. caressed; pres. part. caressing)
1.
Touch or stroke lightly in a loving or endearing manner.  Synonym: fondle.  "They fondled in the back seat of the taxi"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Caress" Quotes from Famous Books



... "tell" things. To this end she would sit on your knee and lay one small but determined hand upon your cheek to turn your face towards her, so that she could make sure you were attending. She kept the small hand there, soft and light, a fairy-like caress, unless your attention wandered. If this happened, a sharp little pinch quickly diverted your thoughts into the proper channel. As she pinched you, the Kitten dropped her eyes so that you noticed how long and black were her eyelashes. ...
— The Ffolliots of Redmarley • L. Allen Harker

... whatever, but please God he will not need to keep his word." He laid his hand in a momentary caress upon his boy's shoulder, and sank back again, saying, "Take ...
— The Man From Glengarry - A Tale Of The Ottawa • Ralph Connor

... Teacher, he's tame and he knows me," Bunny said, stroking Polly's head, a caress the parrot seemed to like. Polly perched herself on Bunny's shoulder, and then he and Charlie went out, envied ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store • Laura Lee Hope

... will let me help you dress after it. Certainly not otherwise." The deep voice had in it a tremulous note that was like a caress. The speaker was looking into the shadows. The glory without ...
— The Way of an Eagle • Ethel M. Dell

... and woman, are two kinds of love, my lady,—one which a man may teach a woman, which is quick desire and the bitter sweetness of passion, the meaning of a kiss, the thrill of a caress: and this, when all is said and done, is of earth, and of the flesh; and one which a woman may teach a man: and this is reverence, and tenderness, and holiness, and of the spirit. And she taught the youth this kind of love, my lady; taught ...
— Nicanor - Teller of Tales - A Story of Roman Britain • C. Bryson Taylor

... caress had reversed all her resolutions. She could not let Shadrach go. Reaching home she burnt the letter, and told her mother that if Captain Jolliffe called she was too unwell to ...
— Life's Little Ironies - A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters • Thomas Hardy

... come and bless me! Let these eyes again caress thee. Once in caution, I could fly thee; Now, I nothing could deny thee. In a look if death there be, Come, and I will ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various

... my health, which will, I hope, soon grow better. In other respects I have no reason to complain. I know not that I have written any thing more generally commended than the Lives of the Poets; and have found the world willing enough to caress me, if my health had invited me to be in much company; but this season I have been almost ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell

... just about to give him the succour he needed, but ever withheld. The thunderstorm that broke over the contending armies roared again in his ears; and then again recurred the calm still night, when he had lain helpless on the battle-field; even the caress of Leonillo, and his low growl, were vividly repeated; but as the dog moved, it was to Richard as if the form of his father rose up in its armour from the dark field, and said in a deep hollow voice, "Well fought, my son; I will give thee knighthood." Then Richard thought he was kneeling before ...
— The Prince and the Page • Charlotte M. Yonge

... in the corner (she looked like an ivory cameo and her dress flowed on her like a caress), ...
— Darkwater - Voices From Within The Veil • W. E. B. Du Bois

... incubation. I had always regarded as myths the stories told about them in this respect, and should do so still had I not convinced myself of the truth of these assertions by laying hands upon the ducks myself. I could go quite up to them and caress them, and even then they would not often leave their nests. Some few birds, indeed, did so when I wished to touch them; but they did not fly up, but contented themselves with coolly walking a few paces away from the nest, and there sitting quietly down until I had ...
— Visit to Iceland - and the Scandinavian North • Ida Pfeiffer

... words the dogs sprang upon Shawn, wagged their tails as if in a state of most ecstatic delight, and began to caress him and ...
— The Evil Eye; Or, The Black Spector - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... to him, she went on sorting the cherries, carefully taking them by their stalks with her finger-tips, assiduously picking out the leaves.... But what a confiding caress could be heard ...
— The Torrents of Spring • Ivan Turgenev

... amendment. If the plan succeeds so well with the infant, that he who spares the rod is supposed to spoil the child, why should it utterly fail with the adult? But mark the difference. You punish a child, and a short while after you receive the little penitent back into your love; nay, you caress it into penitence; and the reconcilement is so sweet, that the infant culprit never, perhaps, has his affections so keenly awakened as in these tearful moments of sorrow and forgiveness. The heart is softer than ever, and the sense of shame at having offended is kept sensitively ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 • Various

... be laid This ghost, which does not make afraid, But vexes with dim loveliness And many a shadowy caress? ...
— Robert F. Murray - his poems with a memoir by Andrew Lang • Robert F. Murray

... way, following him through the opening, and passing the twelve fierce-looking troopers who had formed the advance, and one of the men who was holding the beautiful Arab, which looked so perfect in its rich trappings that, lover of a horse as I was, I could not help going up to caress it, and pat its graceful arched neck, and pass my hand over its ...
— Gil the Gunner - The Youngest Officer in the East • George Manville Fenn

... scramble from the sidelines. It was just an ordinary arm, size 36, model A, lot 768, same as we all have—but inside of it the Kid had a wallop that would make a six-inch shell look like a lover's caress! ...
— Kid Scanlan • H. C. Witwer

... The man for th' equipage and horse, Is sure a strange ungrateful thing In any body, but a King. But, this good King, it seems was told By some, that were with him too bold, If e'er you hope to gain your ends, Caress your foes, and trust your friends. Such were the doctrines that were taught, 'Till this unthinking King was brought To leave his friends to starve and die; ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Volume II • Theophilus Cibber

... soon began a rather furious pushing; each drive increased my ardour, making her wriggle and squirm her buttocks about so that had I not got a firm grasp with my hands I should have lost my position. Mary's fingers frigged her rapidly as well, and she managed with her other hand to caress my testicles, and every now and then grasped the root of my prick, drawing back the skin of the foreskin, so that each plunge gave me the most intense delight, the head and shoulders of my ...
— Forbidden Fruit • Anonymous

... were born to be enthroned In hearts, and youth to be caress'd; And beauty is not, if not own'd, At least by one ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat

... under the caress. His armour arose as if unseen hands guided it, and placed it again upon him. Once more he was the strong, quiet man that St. Ange had taken upon faith, and ...
— Joyce of the North Woods • Harriet T. Comstock

... cross their hands on their breasts, and stand motionless for a few minutes till she got almost out of sight. The women would bring their pretty brown babies for the fair English lady to admire or to pat on the head; and when Muriel now and again stooped down to caress some fat little naked child, lolling in the dust outside the hut, with true tropical laziness, the mothers would run up at the sight with delight and joy, and throw themselves down in ecstacies of gratitude for the notice she had taken of their favored little ones. "The gods of Heaven," they ...
— The Great Taboo • Grant Allen

... a cold-blooded, heartless way to treat a boy who has never done you any harm?" inquired Rodney, stooping down to caress first one and then another of the large pack of dogs which came trooping up the minute the cabin door was opened. "Have you a son about ...
— Rodney The Partisan • Harry Castlemon

... now make a secret of their meeting after twelve months' separation? He was puzzled at her note, and he was further puzzled at her attitude towards him. She was cold and unresponsive. When he held her in his arms and kissed her soft lips, she only once returned his passionate caress, and then as though it were a duty forced upon her. She had, however, promised to come to the ball. That ...
— The House of Whispers • William Le Queux

... pour Eastward and westward sounds suffused— Seems as it were bemused And blurred, and like the speech Of lazy seas upon a lotus-eating beach— With this enchanted lustrousness, This mellow magic, that (as a man's caress Brings back to some faded face beloved before A heavenly shadow of the grace it wore Ere the poor eyes were minded to beseech) Old things transfigures, and you hail and bless Their looks of long-lapsed loveliness once more; Till the sedate and mannered elegance Of Clement's is ...
— The Song of the Sword - and Other Verses • W. E. Henley

... lay there Rosa bent over me, and put her arms round my neck, and I could feel on my face the caress of her hair, and the warm baptism ...
— The Ghost - A Modern Fantasy • Arnold Bennett

... look out upon a new world; but one felt that the lower part of her face was scarcely in harmony with the upper. The cheeks fell in a little; the prominent nose made the mouth look smaller than it actually was; her neck seemed only to lead the eye downward to her bosom, which almost appeared to caress her throat, especially when her head was bent forward, as was generally the case. And very beautiful the throat was, delicate in colour, superb in contour, and admirably set upon the bust. For this reason she could never find in her heart to hide this full white ...
— Absalom's Hair • Bjornstjerne Bjornson

... and the mother majestical heard him, Sitting afar in the deep by her father the Ancient of Ocean. Nimbly anon from the foam of the waves like a cloud she ascended, And she was near to him soon, and she sat by him where he lamented, Softly caress'd with her hand on his cheek, and address'd him and nam'd him:— "Why art thou weeping, my child? what has burthen'd thy soul with affliction? Speak to me, nothing conceal, that we both may have knowledge in fulness." Heavily groaning, to her ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846 • Various

... while we were taking our round to see how our proteges were going on. All those that had been brought up to the water-hole were so far recovered that they were grazing about, and bounded away as soon as we attempted to near them. My stag was grazing also, but he allowed me to caress him, just as if we had been old friends, and he never left the place until the next morning, when we ...
— Monsieur Violet • Frederick Marryat

... to Lenore. He spoke cheerfully to the ladies, and even contrived to joke about his busy day; but he felt that something had come between him and his dearest ones—even they seemed estranged. If they leaned over him or took his hand, his impulse was to withdraw from the caress. And when his wife looked lovingly at him, there was a something in her eyes, where once he was wont to turn for comfort in every extremity, that he could ...
— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag

... tender hearts within his hands; Seeing, in every child that goes, a flower From Eden's nursery bower, A little stray from Heaven, for reverence here Sent down, and comfort dear: All care well paid-for by one pure caress, And life made happy ...
— The Visions of England - Lyrics on leading men and events in English History • Francis T. Palgrave

... Dieu send him back again in blue and red, With his queer quaint kepi at an angle on his head! So the Seine shall laugh again beneath the sunlight's quick caress; So the Meudon woods shall echo once again to "La Jeunesse"; And all along the Luxembourg and in the Tuilleries, We shall meet him en permission with Margot ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, November 18, 1914 • Various

... the smooth cheek, where time had been sparing of wrinkles, and her mother drew her down for a closer caress. ...
— Joyce's Investments - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry

... The Human Comedy was at first as a dream to me, one of those impossible projects which we caress and then let fly; a chimera that gives us a glimpse of its smiling woman's face, and forthwith spreads its wings and returns to a heavenly realm of phantasy. But this chimera, like many another, has ...
— The Human Comedy - Introductions and Appendix • Honore de Balzac

... down to the child's, and rubbed his rough cheek against her soft one, with his old facetious caress. "Tell father where you've been," he whispered. Ellen gave him a little piteous glance, and her lip quivered, but she ...
— The Portion of Labor • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... wall, the sun came out from behind a cloud, and a ray of light streaming from an opposite window fell upon the doorway as he entered. It lingered but for a moment, and after touching his picturesque figure as with a caress, disappeared, and the eyes of John Graham ...
— Graham of Claverhouse • Ian Maclaren

... the appointment and reads it; then she runs to Olof, her face beaming). Now, Olof, I can wish you joy with a happy heart! (She starts to caress him, but he leaps to his feet ...
— Master Olof - A Drama in Five Acts • August Strindberg

... yer pore-'arted ole choiner boy! (Says, dismally), "Ow! for the vanished Spring-time! Ow! for the dyes gorn boy! Ow! for the"—(changing the melody)—"'omeless, I wander in lonely distress. No one ter pity me—none ter caress!" (Here he sheds tears, overcome by his own pathos, but presently cheers up.) "I dornce all noight! An' I rowl 'ome toight! I'm a rare-un at a rollick, or I'm ready fur a foight." Any man 'ere wanter foight me? Don't say no, ole Frecklefoot! (To the ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, August 8, 1891 • Various

... wouldn't like to take a contract to match her on any limit. I guess," he added softly, "that the consideration in that deal 'd have to be 'love an' affection.' Git up, old lady," he exclaimed, and drew the whip along old Jinny's back like a caress. The mare quickened her pace, and in a few minutes they ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott

... move, Mr. Beebe moves, George moves, and movement may engender shadow. But this book lies motionless, to be caressed all the morning by the sun and to raise its covers slightly, as though acknowledging the caress. ...
— A Room With A View • E. M. Forster

... heard to utter the words doctor, pin, ship, and others. She attached great importance to orientation, and seemed quite ill at ease in finding her way about when not absolutely sure of directions. She was always timid in the presence of animals, and by no persuasion could she be induced to caress a domestic animal. In common with most maidens, at sixteen she became more sedate, reserved and thoughtful; at twenty she had finished her education. In 1878 she was seen by G. Stanley Hall, who found that she located the approach and departure ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... You ask no question, but rest content So I am with you to take your kiss, And perhaps I value you more for this. For this is Wisdom; to love, to live, To take what Fate, or the Gods, may give, To ask no question, to make no prayer, To kiss the lips and caress the hair, Speed passion's ebb as you greet its flow,— To ...
— India's Love Lyrics • Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (AKA Laurence Hope), et al.

... can stand it twelve hours more if I can, can't you, old pal?" The tall roan with the dot of black between the eyes returned his owner's caress by nosing his bare neck, and the hand held up to smooth ...
— The Treasure Trail - A Romance of the Land of Gold and Sunshine • Marah Ellis Ryan

... without reluctance, was prevailed upon to accompany the others. He was loath to part even for a few hours from the captives he prized so highly. His wildest dreams had been realised. Two young giraffes had been taken and were gradually getting tamed. He could caress them. They could be conducted with but little trouble to the colony of Graaf Reinet,—thence delivered to the Dutch consul, and both money and fame would ...
— The Giraffe Hunters • Mayne Reid

... girl with eyes as deep and dark as and browner than his own, a winsome little maid of three, whose golden, sunshiny hair floated about her bonny head and sweet serious face like a halo of light from another world. Van "took to her" from the very first. He courted the caress of her little hand, and won her love and trust by the discretion of his movements when she was near. As soon as the days grew warm enough, she was always out on the front piazza when Van and I came home from our daily ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 • Various

... fruition shall be denied in eternity? Why this question, which implies a doubt of the goodness of God? Sweet is the belief, sweeter the hope, that I shall see that smile of benignity, feel that gentle, loving caress, and forever, in unalloyed bliss, participate heaven with her. My mother—my mother! see you into my heart, here by your gravestone, to-night? Hast thou gone with me through my long pilgrimage of time? If I have kept ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks

... gaping in sardonic grins at the puny attempts to wrest their secret from them. Always, the mountains mock, even as they stimulate to greater effort with their wonderful air, and soothe bitter disappointment with the soft caress of twilight's after-glow. I love it—and yet, how I hate it all! I can't hold out much longer. I'm like a general who has to withdraw his forces, not because he is beaten, but because he has run short of ammunition. ...
— The Gold Girl • James B. Hendryx

... first lecture I ever attended, and it struck my infant intelligence that they ought to be preserved. And I too might be a poet if I lived in the country, in constant communion with Nature, abandoning my soul to her maternal caress. But alas, the stir, the scramble, the mad whirl of city life, the debasing contact with low material minds, the daily study of Prices Current, make even of me a muckworm. Still, I might work up a brook or two after I get to the woods, or expatiate ...
— A Pessimist - In Theory and Practice • Robert Timsol

... where a peacock-blue verb, and where an adjective as darkly purple as a grape. He is an imagist in prose. You may like his story and you may not like it, but if you don't like the way he tells it then there is something the matter with your ears. As for me, his experiments with words caress me as I am caressed by the tunes of old Johannes Brahms. How simple it seems to manage them—and how ...
— The Line of Love - Dizain des Mariages • James Branch Cabell

... cheek was blanch'd, but beautiful and soft, each curling tress Wav'd round the harp, o'er which he bent with zephyrine caress; And as that lyrist sat all lorn, upon the silv'ry stream, The music of his harp was as the music of a dream, Most mournfully delicious, like those tones that wound the heart, Yet soothe it, when it cherishes the griefs ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 357 - Vol. XIII, No. 357., Saturday, February 21, 1829 • Various

... tropic, was the breath of those thick white stars,—a tasted odor. Not so the cool air that came to me from a diamond-shaped bed of Parma violets, kept back so long from bloom that I might have a succession of them; these were the last, and their perfume told it, for it was at once a caress and a sigh. I breathed the gale of sweetness till every nerve rested and every pulse was tranquil ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. II, No. 8, June 1858 • Various

... I, once more I dared appear, And found old friends so true and dear. The mem'ry of my ancient lays Lived in their hearts, awoke their praise. Oh! they did more. I was their guest; Again was welcomed and caress't, And, twined with their melodious tongue, Again my rustic carol rung; And my old language proudly found Her words had list'ners pressing round. Thus, though condemn'd the shepherd's skill, The Gascon Poet ...
— Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist • Samuel Smiles

... her in here at ten o'clock last night," the man behind the blotter informed Miss Bailey, while Mrs. Aaronsohn showered abuse and caress upon the wanderer. "She was straying around the Bowery and she gave us a great game of talk about her father bein' a bird. I guess ...
— Little Citizens • Myra Kelly

... meet the caress—looked by chance at a cupboard fixed in a recess in the opposite wall of the room—and suddenly checked herself. "This is too selfish of me," she said, rising abruptly. "All this time I am forgetting the bridegroom. His father will leave him to hear ...
— Jezebel • Wilkie Collins

... I had missed her for a month, and was ready to weep for her as for a friend, when she reappeared with two little fawns. At first they were afraid of me, but seeing their mother caress me, they soon learned to do ...
— Chicot the Jester - [An abridged translation of "La dame de Monsoreau"] • Alexandre Dumas

... surfeited him with the honey of her sweetness and the syrup of her kisses and the nectar of the young new moon of beauty bathed in the sun of love, the redder[19] because of its approaching set. And all at once, she started to her feet, in the very middle of a caress. And she stood, listening. And Aja listened also: and he heard in the silence the sound of ...
— An Essence Of The Dusk, 5th Edition • F. W. Bain

... scattered the most costly gems of art and vertu—choice paintings adorn the walls—flowers, rare and beautiful, lift their heads proudly above the works of art which surround them, and in splendid Chinese cages, birds of gorgeous plumage have learned to caress the rosy lips of their young mistress, or perch triumphantly on her snowy finger. Here are books, too, and music—a harp—a piano—while through a half open door leading from a little recess over which a multaflora ...
— Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXII No. 4, April 1848 • Various

... cry of childish fright Rang through the silence of the night, As but the mother's fond caress Could soothe its infantile distress; And the mother answered, with loving stroke Of her gentle hand, as she softly spoke: "Hush, hush, my child, that troubled cry; What evil can ...
— Mountain idylls, and Other Poems • Alfred Castner King

... it fust rate. Mis' Kennett said she'd let her childern stay f'rever with yer, ef they never larned a thing, 'nd so would I, dear, dear Miss Kate! Oh, I bet God would like to see you in that pretty blue dress!" and he hung over me with a speechless caress; his first, and last indeed, for he was shy and reticent in emotion, and never once showed his affection in the presence of ...
— The Story of Patsy • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

... soothed by the gentle tone, and dear caress. Oh, blessed tie! uniting mother and child. Earth cannot, and Heaven will not ...
— Aunt Phillis's Cabin - Or, Southern Life As It Is • Mary H. Eastman

... in a silence which Elise did not care to break. Her restless eyes glanced from Zephyr to the mountains, fell with an eager caress on the flowers that almost hid the brook, looked out to the distant mesa, and last of all shot defiance at the blazing windows of the Blue Goose that were hurtling back the fiery darts of the ...
— Blue Goose • Frank Lewis Nason

... tree let you and me Woo Bacchus to caress us; We're old, 't is true, But still we two Are ...
— Echoes from the Sabine Farm • Roswell Martin Field and Eugene Field

... caress brought the tears to the proud girl's eyes. "Thank you, Nora. Some of the audience will agree with ...
— The Light of the Star - A Novel • Hamlin Garland

... on the floor, she would have taken hold of nothing. But love is the first comforter, and where love and truth speak, the love will be felt where the truth is never perceived. Love indeed is the highest in all truth; and the pressure of a hand, a kiss, the caress of a child, will do more to save sometimes than the wisest argument, even rightly understood. Love alone is wisdom, love alone is power; and where love seems to fail it is where self has stepped between and dulled ...
— Paul Faber, Surgeon • George MacDonald

... believed this man whom no one around her would believe; and she, who never had believed what other men avowed, and who detested their avowals, believed de Spain, and secretly, guiltily, glowed in every word of his devotion and breathed faint in its every caress. ...
— Nan of Music Mountain • Frank H. Spearman

... children, Amy, Annie, and Tom, had come forward, as only children do who are wont to be treated affectionately on their father's return. John had a kiss and a caress for each of them; then he stepped to the bed and looked at his latest born. The baby was moaning feebly; he spoke no word to it, and on turning away glanced about the room absently. In the meantime his wife had taken some ...
— The Nether World • George Gissing

... fields caress; brown clods tell each to each; Sad-colored leaves have sense whereto I cannot reach; Spiced everlasting-flowers outstrip ...
— Ride to the Lady • Helen Gray Cone

... little wild things brought no sense of danger with it. It searched out the spots behind their velvet ears where they love to be rubbed; it wandered down over their backs with a little wavy caress in its motion; it curled its palm up softly under their moist muzzles and brought their tongues out instantly for the faint suggestion of salt that was in it. Suddenly their heads came up. All deception was over now. They had forgotten their hiding, their first lesson; they turned and looked ...
— Wood Folk at School • William J. Long

... the implication. Besides he had just got through calling himself a fool, so perhaps she was more or less justified. Moreover, at that particular moment she undertook to assist him with his necktie. Her soft, cool fingers touched his double chin and seemed to caress it lovingly. He lifted his head very much as a dog does when he is being tickled on that velvety ...
— The Prince of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon

... missal, and gazed with intense eagerness upon the picture of the fair saint upon which he had been painting. She approached her lips as if to kiss it; then again drew back, as if she feared to mar the colouring by her caress: then gazed again, until her eyes filled with tears: and at last, with the cry, "Yes! it is she—her very self!" burst into a fit of convulsive sobbing, and buried ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 347, September, 1844 • Various

... with me in her provokingly patronizing manner—"hoped I had brought my horses with me" (as if I was coming to spend months at Dangerfield without Brilliant!); "supposed I had my side-saddle in the cap-box;" and showed me my room without so much as a single kind word of welcome or a cousinly caress. It was quite a relief to help dear Aunt Deborah to unpack her dressing-case, and kiss her pleasant face, and give her the warm cup of tea without which Aunt Deborah never dreams of ...
— Kate Coventry - An Autobiography • G. J. Whyte-Melville

... shut, than the genie, as the faithful slave of the lamp, and punctual in executing the command of those who possessed it, without giving the bridegroom the least time to caress his bride, to the great amazement of them both, took up the bed, and transported it in an instant into Alla ad Deen's chamber, where ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous

... "Yes," There's a quick caress, A kiss, a sigh, A melting eye. There's a vision of things That hard cash brings,— A winter at Nice With a servant apiece, A long yachting cruise, Name in "personal news," Plenty of wine, Two hours to dine; But it's different quite ...
— When hearts are trumps • Thomas Winthrop Hall

... filled him with a desire to torture her. The dumb reproach in her eyes had exasperated him, rousing the fiendish temper that had been hardly kept in check all the previous week. And yet, when he held her helpless in his arms, quivering and shrinking from the embrace that was no caress, but merely the medium of his anger, and the reproach in her wavering eyes changed to mute entreaty, the pleasure he had anticipated in her fear had failed him as it had before, and had irritated him further. The wild beating of her heart, the sobbing intake of her ...
— The Sheik - A Novel • E. M. Hull

... magical effect. So vivid a look of joy flushed up beneath those fingers, that it seemed as if the sad and wan Priscilla had been snatched away, and another kind of creature substituted in her place. This one caress, bestowed voluntarily by Zenobia, was evidently received as a pledge of all that the stranger sought from her, whatever the unuttered boon might be. From that instant, too, she melted in quietly amongst us, and was no longer a foreign element. Though always an object of ...
— The Blithedale Romance • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... to feel a peculiar interest in one young man more than in any other. You think of him in his absence; you welcome his coming; his eyes seem to caress you; the clasp of his hand thrills you; you begin to think that you have passed from the domain of friendship ...
— What a Young Woman Ought to Know • Mary Wood-Allen

... she sits upon the table at breakfast and dinner as grave and polite as a visitor, without offering to touch the meat. Indeed, before she was guilty of this offence, I have often seen you stroke and caress her with great affection; and puss, who is by no means of an ungrateful temper, would always pur and arch her tail, as if she was sensible ...
— The History of Sandford and Merton • Thomas Day

... Few of the qualities that had impelled him to call her Joy remained in this anxious face. She attended to him assiduously; but she was only a nurse, nothing of a lover, and presently he found himself wondering at her lack of emotion, fretting for the absent caress with an invalid's petulance. As his strength returned, Aurora permitted Mary Kyley to assume the larger share of the nursing, and Jim was told what news there was, excepting the truth about poor Mike. It was Ryder who had informed Aurora that Done and his friends were in the stockade, ...
— In the Roaring Fifties • Edward Dyson

... it, and were claimed by it once more; we felt that it was overpowering us, and we rejoiced; we desired to be lost in it, to be borne away, or to carry it away with us. As in the raptures of love, one wishes more hands with which to caress, more lips with which to kiss, more eyes with which to see, more soul with which to worship; spreading ourselves out in nature, with a joyful and delirious abandon, we regretted that our eyes could not penetrate to the innermost parts of the rocks, ...
— Over Strand and Field • Gustave Flaubert

... reasonable man; think of him everywhere labouring to spread the light; how is it possible that such efforts should be overborne by forces of blind brutality, now that the human race has got so far?—Yes, yes; but this mortal whom I caress as reasonable, as enlightened and enlightening, this author, investigator, lecturer, or studious gentleman, to whose coat-tails I cling, does he always represent justice and peace, sweetness of manners, purity of life—all ...
— The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft • George Gissing

... smile, she added, with a more serious precision which was, however, lost in the sympathizing caress of her voice, "And would you not be getting off and coming in and resting a wee bit before you go further? It would be so good of you, and father would think it so kind. And he will be ...
— The Bell-Ringer of Angel's and Other Stories • Bret Harte

... waiting every morning, and left her clothes lying three garments deep upon the floor. As for Guy—but his happiness is something I cannot describe. Nothing can disturb his peace, which is as firm as the everlasting hills. He does not caress her as much as he did once, but his thoughtful care of her is wonderful, and she is never long from his sight without his ...
— Miss McDonald • Mary J. Holmes

... Sir John: The more his Wit engaged the King, the more his Grandeur alarm'd his Enemies, who encreas'd with his Honours. Not but the Courtiers caress'd him to a Man, as the first who had brought Dumpling-eating to Perfection. King John himself lov'd him entirely; being of Cesar's Mind, that is, he had a natural Antipathy against Meagre, Herring-gutted Wretches; he lov'd only Fat-headed Men, and such who slept o' Nights; ...
— A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling (1726) • Anonymous

... hesitatingly; and he added as the woman stooped to caress Snip: "We're in a big hurry, an' if you'll give me the ...
— Aunt Hannah and Seth • James Otis

... nervous irritability which verged on madness, she alone had the power to soothe him and restore him to sanity. Her very voice had a magic to arrest him in his worst rages, and when the fit of madness (for such it undoubtedly was) was passing away she would "take his head and caress it tenderly, passing her fingers through his hair. Soon he grew drowsy and slept, leaning against her breast. For two or three hours she would sit motionless, waiting for the cure slumber always brought him, until at last ...
— Love affairs of the Courts of Europe • Thornton Hall

... are purgative operations. In public we must conform to the standard, in private only may we do our best or our worst. Acting so, we will be freed from false pride and cowardly self-consciousness. Let us be brave. Let us caress the waists of our neighbours without fear. Let everybody's chin be our toy. Let us pat one another on the hats as we pass in the melancholy streets.—Thus only shall we learn to be gay and careless who for so long have been miserable and suspicious. ...
— Here are Ladies • James Stephens

... a sort of alcove in front of her by turning her back on the company. She made such a nook now and, taking Marie Louise's hand in hers, put it in the hand of the tall and staring man whose very look Marie Louise found invasive. His handclasp was somehow like an illicit caress. ...
— The Cup of Fury - A Novel of Cities and Shipyards • Rupert Hughes

... bestow a swift caress upon his forehead. "My own Billikins!" she murmured. "You're the kindest husband that ever was. Of course, ...
— The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell

... brotherhood of trees. Trees grow in that desolate landscape only on the borders of streams. Toward the water and welcome shade they hasten. Tired beast and tired man lave in the lifegiving flood. The horses wade in it as though the snows had melted and run thither to caress and refresh them. Oh, the exhilaration of water! On the margin of the far banks the camp is made for the night. There is witchery in a Western night. Myriads upon myriads of low-hung stars, brilliant, large ...
— The Vanishing Race • Dr. Joseph Kossuth Dixon

... that this is John Hamilton's sword," he said, "and that you are John Hamilton's grandson!" As the sword lay across his knees he kept stroking it and touching it as one might caress a child, glancing up at me from time to time with a smile. It seemed to have carried him back again into days and scenes to which we all were strangers, and we watched him without speaking. He became suddenly conscious of our silence, and, on looking up, seemed to become uncomfortably ...
— Captain Macklin • Richard Harding Davis

... everything gained in sanctity by its age: the moth-eaten furniture was hallowed by tradition. The rheumatic old dog of uncertain breed, to which he had never vouchsafed a caress became now, when banished to the stable, a tried and faithful companion ...
— The Tyranny of Weakness • Charles Neville Buck

... smoke droops, has the look of a mourning emblem, a flag floating its caress over a grave. The gulls, making their broad flight and then riding at peace, ...
— Jacob's Room • Virginia Woolf

... were already dug, and they set to work. Winterborne's fingers were endowed with a gentle conjuror's touch in spreading the roots of each little tree, resulting in a sort of caress, under which the delicate fibres all laid themselves out in their proper directions for growth. He put most of these roots towards the south-west; for, he said, in forty years' time, when some great gale ...
— The Woodlanders • Thomas Hardy

... for the Allies to erect one also. It might be of pure white jade, which the Chinese women love, which in its translucent depths seems to hold the bright Eastern sunlight with the detaining lingerage of a caress, and might bear an inscription saying that it was erected in honour of the memory of the women and girls of the province of Pechili who had sacrificed their lives to ...
— Impressions of a War Correspondent • George Lynch

... took the hands in his. Her eyes made him brave and strong, and her "we" throbbed in his thoughts like a warm and tender caress. ...
— The Place Beyond the Winds • Harriet T. Comstock

... down for the finish on a heap of rags in the depths of a hole. No neighbours had assisted him in his last moments; he had simply turned himself towards the wall. And ah! how bare and cold and deserted it was! And what a pang for a poor creature to go off like that without a word, a caress. Ah! my heart bounded within me and ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola

... heart of his battle at the shops. For the present he had enough trouble. And yet, to see that woman with John, an angel might be deceived. To see her weep and laugh over him, to see her touch him with her hands, to caress him with her eyes, to be tender and strong at his side. ... Could anybody be so wicked? True, her transgression had been made, according to this letter, before John had married her; but this lessened the enormity of it none in ...
— Half a Rogue • Harold MacGrath

... casting out of an evil spirit, and Granpa Jerrold felt half his burden rolling away beneath that caress. There was a healing power in the touch of Grey's lips, and the stain, if stain there were upon the wrinkled hand, was kissed away, and the pain and remorse were not so ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes

... bosoms kind, That daily court you and caress, How few the happy secret find Of your calm loveliness! 'Live for to-day! to-morrow's light To-morrow's cares shall bring to sight. Go, sleep like closing flowers at night, And Heaven thy morn ...
— Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 • John Wilson

... the demoralising influence of this caress. He held himself away from her, swaying backwards, resisting the pressure of her arm. His eyelids grew bigger and bigger, his mouth twitched and quivered. "Oh, it is not that," he said, with a quiver in his voice, "if mamma likes it. I am only little, I am rather backward, I am ...
— A Country Gentleman and his Family • Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

... pleasanter still was the feeling that someone really needed her, that the happiness of the man at her side depended on her yes or no. She abandoned herself to the feeling, forgetting the abysmal interval of his caress, or at least saying to herself that in time she would forget it, that really there was nothing to make a fuss about in being kissed by anyone she ...
— The Glimpses of the Moon • Edith Wharton

... been pacing the room up and down, up and down, stopping now and then to touch some little familiar object with a touch that was a caress. ...
— The Land of Promise • D. Torbett

... life: he had doubtless had enough of girls, so he took another animal, which he thought might be tamer and more tractable—a horse. He would not allow it to be broken in the usual method, which he considered very cruel: he would talk to it, caress it, make it his friend, win it by kindness. But unfortunately for his experiment, the horse killed him, by a kick, I believe, before it ...
— Holidays at the Grange or A Week's Delight - Games and Stories for Parlor and Fireside • Emily Mayer Higgins

... and stifled kisses, and doubting whether they came from the shoemaker, sent forth shrill cries for Martha to come in without delay. But darkness made Patty bold; she assured her mother that there was 'nobody,' accompanying the word by another kiss. Then, with loving caress, she tore herself from Clare's arms, flying up the narrow path to the cottage. John Clare was transfixed to the spot for a few minutes, and, having gazed again and again at the rose-embowered dwelling, made his way back to Stamford, joyful, ...
— The Life of John Clare • Frederick Martin

... Olympia, a little perplexed, and, seating herself on the cot with Vincent, where she could caress him ...
— The Iron Game - A Tale of the War • Henry Francis Keenan

... selected airs he remembered that there was one which would give him this chance to speak, in the playing of which he could put all his skill and all his soul, an air which carried with it infinite sadness and the touch of a caress. The other numbers on the programme had been chosen to please the patrons of a restaurant, this one, La Lettre d'Amour, was included in the list for his own satisfaction. He had put it there to please himself; to-night he would play it to please her—to this ...
— Ranson's Folly • Richard Harding Davis

... rising over the lake, and long, pale rays of level light were stealing up the paths, like the fingers of a blind child that caress gropingly the features ...
— The Princess Virginia • C. N. Williamson

... her into mine arms, very gently and without caress; but presently I stroked her hair, and called her Naani and Mirdath, and said many things unto her, that now I scarce do wot of, but she did know them in the after time. And she was very quiet in mine arms, and seeming wondrous content; but ...
— The Night Land • William Hope Hodgson

... yet it seemed to me that the curve of his lips was almost a caress. There was certainly nothing left ...
— The Master Mummer • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... satisfied with Jimmy's farewell kiss. Had there been passion in it she might have been frightened; but, as it was, the caress he gave her seemed very sweet. She was very proud of this lover of hers, of his undoubted cleverness, his good looks, and his powers of conversation. It would be very pleasant to see his name on all the bookstalls, to know that almost every other girl of her ...
— People of Position • Stanley Portal Hyatt

... slab of ginger-bread for light nocturnal refection, and her own pot of bear's grease. Perhaps it was the piteous defencelessness of youthful sleep, perhaps it was some lingering memory of her father's caress; but as she gazed at him with troubled eyes, the juvenile reprobate slipped back into the baby-boy that she had carried in her own childish arms such a short time ago, when the maternal responsibility had descended with the dead ...
— A Phyllis of the Sierras • Bret Harte

... skated at all, and this winter (1873) there has not been a race, and not even a sleigh has been seen. Let us hope that this deplorable state of affairs will not last, and that winter will return to caress Holland with its icy bear's paw, and that the fine art of skating will once more arise with its mantle of snow and its crown of icicles. Let me announce meanwhile the publication of a work called "Skating," upon which ...
— Holland, v. 1 (of 2) • Edmondo de Amicis

... of frightened hesitancy ... and then she had resigned herself to this sort of savage tenderness which was better in its very brutality than any caress she had ever known, which thrilled her with a glorious joy such as, she realised now, she had dreamt of and lacked, and wanted; which was a harbourage to which she came, blushing, confused—but glad, conquered, and happy in the thrall of ...
— Brood of the Witch-Queen • Sax Rohmer

... spoke, closed the door, took her face between his hands, and kissed both brown cheeks. The girl's dark face lighted up into the splendor of absolute beauty as she returned his caress. ...
— The Baronet's Bride • May Agnes Fleming

... parents and then advanced upon Tom, who retreated to his second line of defence behind a chair to save himself from the awful peril of a grateful caress. ...
— Tom Slade with the Boys Over There • Percy K. Fitzhugh

... thinking that he had, according to custom, drunk intoxicating hemp, sat upon the floor, and raising his head, placed it tenderly in her lap. Then, burning with the fire of separation from him, she began to kiss his cheeks, and to fondle and caress him with ...
— Vikram and the Vampire • Sir Richard F. Burton

... always moved when he worked. His fingers, strong and clean-jointed and almost womanishly smooth—the only part of the man not pitifully seared with age—flew with a bewildering nimbleness one moment, only to dwell the next with a lingering caress upon the shaping features before him; and for each caress of his finger tips there was an accompanying, vacantly gentle smile or an uncertainly emphatic nod of the silvered head which gave the one-sided conversation a ...
— Once to Every Man • Larry Evans

... these men's appetites. The cups are carefully scraped, and the enjoyment of bread and water begins. It is easy to see, too, that it is an enjoyment — greater, to judge by the pleasure on their faces, than the most skilfully devised menu could afford. They positively caress the biscuits before they eat them. And the water — ice-cold water they all call for — this also disappears in great quantities, and procures, I feel certain from their expression, a far greater pleasure and satisfaction than the finest wine that was ever produced. The Primus hums ...
— The South Pole, Volumes 1 and 2 • Roald Amundsen

... persons- the chastity of their women is not held in high estimation, and the husband will for a trifle barter the companion of his bead for a night or longer if he conceives the reward adiquate; tho they are not so importunate that we should caress their women as the siouxs were and some of their women appear to be held more sacred than in any nation we have seen I have requested the men to give them no cause of jealousy by having connection with their women without their knowledge, which with them strange as it may seem is considered ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... interpose and bodily lift the daughter from the parent's arms. All at once her own calmness and courage forsook good Mrs. Benton, and now that she saw the lost girl restored, visibly present in the flesh, anger possessed her till she longed to shake, rather than caress, ...
— Jessica, the Heiress • Evelyn Raymond

... you know not what you ask," cried he, with a sternness which startled her. "If I had more than one life to waste—but you caress with one hand and stab with the other. Fare thee well, Borghild, for here ...
— Tales From Two Hemispheres • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen

... tears to the maiden, the fears to the child, While the future stands beckoning afar in the wild; For there Freedom, more fair, walks the primeval land, Where the wild deer all court the caress of her hand. There the deep forests fall, and the old shadows fly, And the palace and temple leap into the sky. Oh, the East holds no place where the onward can rest, And alone there is room in the land of ...
— Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia • Various

... in a primeval forest, it seemed, would the modest Puritan bare his body to the mirror of limpid water and the caress of mountain air. ...
— Christmas Eve on Lonesome and Other Stories • John Fox, Jr.

... on the fireplace; his head on it. The other hung down by his side, and Jack licked it, and he loved the dog as he felt the caress. Then Drysdale came to his side with a glass of brandy, which he took and tossed off as though it had been water. "Thank you," he said, and as Drysdale went back with the bottle, reached a large armchair ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes

... waists were interchangeable. One really distinguishing loveliness was her complexion. The skin flowed over her body with the cool fleshliness of a pink rose petal. There was a natural shimmer to it, a dewiness and a pollen of youth that enveloped her like a caress. ...
— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst

... her hand out and laid it with the tenderest motion of caress on his hand. Captain Twinely could not hesitate, he promised to go with her. In the back of his mind was a feeling that if he were of the party Maurice St. Clair could not attempt to ...
— The Northern Iron - 1907 • George A. Birmingham

... recognize my first touch," came across the moonbeams in a voice as fluty as the original Pan's, and mingled with friendly chuckles and clucks from the entire Bird family as they felt the caress of long hands among them. I was so ruffled myself that I felt in need of soothing; so I came across the light and into the black shadow ...
— The Golden Bird • Maria Thompson Daviess

... felt hat, smooth black frock-coat, narrow tie, black but clerical) almost suggested that he was a minister of that persuasion. His lips were hidden under an iron grey moustache, the short grizzled beard was smoothed forward and fined to a point by the perpetual caress of a ...
— The Divine Fire • May Sinclair

... praise and recognition may express itself in bragging vanity, or expand into heroic endeavor. So, too, there is a physical love which expresses itself in a mere caress and a higher, purer, more glorious love which manifests itself in service and self-sacrifice. The tremendous hug of the little arms and the kiss of the rosy lips are manifestations of physical love; while the child is in this loving mood the wise ...
— Parent and Child Vol. III., Child Study and Training • Mosiah Hall

... caress thy limbs, the fishes pluck thine eyes, the wolves crack thy bleached bones on ...
— The Spinner's Book of Fiction • Various

... those hours when he felt himself withdrawn from public gaze, those highest in rank might never forget when they approached him that he was a god. He showed himself to be a kind father, a good-natured husband,* ready to dally with his wives and caress them on the cheek as they offered him a flower, or moved a piece upon ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... keeper stooped to caress the strange creature which had done him such a great service; but suddenly a voice said in ...
— The Blue Fairy Book • Various

... paw, from which Androclus extracted a large thorn. The gratelul animal subsequently recognized him when he had been captured and thrown to the wild beasts in the circus, and, instead of attacking him, began to caress him (Aelian, De ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... lucid mind, enthusiastic, alert, he tasted that happiness given only to artists, the happiness of bringing forth their work in joy. Nothing existed any more for him in such hours of work except the piece of canvas on which was born an image under the caress of his brush; and he experienced, in these crises of productiveness, a strange and delicious sensation of abounding life which intoxicated him. When evening came he was exhausted as by healthful fatigue, and went to sleep with agreeable anticipation of his ...
— Strong as Death • Guy de Maupassant

... thank you,' said Henry huskily, as with the driest of throats, and a perceptible shudder, he turned to go away; the Doctor pausing to caress little Mab, and say, 'I had better take home this poor little thing. She may come to harm here, and may be a comfort to ...
— The Trial - or, More Links of the Daisy Chain • Charlotte M. Yonge

... remember, stop the thought! You must not look after every woman with lustful thoughts, nor go courting girls who will allow you to hug, caress and kiss them, thus rousing your passions almost to a climax. Do not keep the company of those whose only conversation is of a lewd and depraved character, but keep the company of those ladies who awaken your higher sentiments and ...
— Searchlights on Health - The Science of Eugenics • B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols

... nothing can anything come. It is so simple; and so, too, are the workings of magic, which amaze you so much. What you call magic, when I practice it, Eros, the great god of love, has wrought a thousand times in your breast. When your heart leaps at your brother's caress, when the god's arrow pierces you, and the glance of a lover fills you with gladness, when the sweet harmonies of fine music wrap your soul above this earth, or the wail of a child moves you to compassion, you have felt the magic power ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... inclination of his bony head, by the silent intensity of his look alone, he seemed to lay his herculean frame at her feet. Her hands sank slowly on her lap, and raising her clear eyes, she let her soft, beaming glance enfold him from head to foot like a slow and pale caress. He was very hot when he sat down; she, with bowed head, went on with her sewing; her neck was very white under the light of the lamp; but Falk, hiding his face in the palms of his hands, shuddered faintly. He drew ...
— Falk • Joseph Conrad

... shrubs. Now and again they passed a straggling white village roofed with big, curved, sun-mellowed tiles. Around the village there would be a few trees, and on these the early Spring of the Midi had laid her fingers in tender caress. ...
— Swirling Waters • Max Rittenberg

... later, he flung himself out of his saddle. Like the caress of a vast, soothing hand, the shadowed coolness of the ravine lay upon him. As his feet struck ground, they splashed in the water overflowing from a spring at the base of an immense rock. At once Kirby dropped the reins on the stallion's neck, giving ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 • Various

... (1740-1795) we have another extraordinary figure,—a shallow little Scotch barrister, who trots about like a dog at the heels of his big master, frantic at a caress and groveling at a cuff, and abundantly contented if only he can be near him and record his oracles. All his life long Boswell's one ambition seems to have been to shine in the reflected glory of great men, and his chief task to record their ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long

... the drawing-room, Mrs. Presty had just opened her favorite newspaper. Her only companion was Linley's black poodle, resting at her feet. On the opening of the door, the dog rose—advanced to caress his master—and looked up in Linley's face. If Mrs. Presty's attention had happened to be turned that way, she might have seen, in the faithful creature's sudden and silent retreat, a warning of her son-in-law's humor at that moment. But she was, or assumed to be, interested in her reading; ...
— The Evil Genius • Wilkie Collins



Words linked to "Caress" :   pat, nuzzle, tickle, pet, chuck, grope, paw, dandle, stroke, nose, stroking



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