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Converse   /kˈɑnvərs/  /kənvˈərs/   Listen
Converse

verb
(past & past part. conversed; pres. part. conversing)
1.
Carry on a conversation.  Synonym: discourse.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Converse" Quotes from Famous Books



... giddy whirl of the waltz. That delightful exercise has always been dear to me; I know of nothing more beautiful, more worthy of a beautiful woman and a young man; all dances compared with the waltz are but insipid conventions or pretexts for insignificant converse. It is truly to possess a woman, in a certain sense, to hold her for a half hour in your arms, and to draw her on in the dance, palpitating in spite of herself, in such a way that it can not be positively asserted whether she is being protected or seduced. Some deliver themselves ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... and Josiah Crabtree converse earnestly for several minutes. The man who had escaped from jail pointed to a big bundle he carried and Pelter nodded. Then both walked slowly across the railroad tracks to a dock jutting out into ...
— The Rover Boys in New York • Arthur M. Winfield

... sledge at "the enchanting, starry winter sky overhead," or in early spring feels on a ramble "intoxicated by the beauty of the morning," while he notes that the buds are swelling on the lilacs, and "the birds no longer sing at random," but have begun to converse. ...
— The Forged Coupon and Other Stories • Leo Tolstoy

... comet, the imagination travels wakefully by night, and the heart leaps as it draws near to the silver bosses of the moon. Mrs. Merillia was soon obliged to permit the intrusion of a gigantic telescope into her pretty drawing-room, and found herself expected to converse at the dinner-table on the eight moons of Saturn, the belts of Jupiter, the asteroids of Mars and the phases of Venus. These last she at first declined to discuss with a man, even though he were her grandson. But she was won over by the Prophet's innocent persuasiveness, ...
— The Prophet of Berkeley Square • Robert Hichens

... were appointed me, and three hundred tailors made me a suit of clothes. Moreover, six of his Majesty's greatest scholars were employed to teach me their language, so that soon I was able to converse after a fashion with the Emperor, who often honored me with his visits. The first words I learned were to desire that he would please to give me my liberty, which I every day repeated on my knees; but he answered ...
— The Blue Fairy Book • Various

... preparation of heart. If you were going to visit some person of great consequence, whose favor and esteem you wished to secure, you would take care to have everything about your person adjusted in the most becoming manner. So let it be with your mind, when you come to converse with God. Shut out all worldly thoughts. Strive to bring yourself into a tranquil, holy, and tender frame, so that the truths you contemplate may make their proper impression ...
— A Practical Directory for Young Christian Females - Being a Series of Letters from a Brother to a Younger Sister • Harvey Newcomb

... angry discomfiture. On his side, M. de Boisrose—for he it was, the aged fashion of his dress more conspicuous than ever—stood eyeing the group in mingled pride and resentment, until, aware of his Majesty's approach, and seeing me in intimate converse with him, he joyfully stepped forward, a look of relief taking place of all ...
— Stories By English Authors: France • Various

... had shrunk from going again into his Glasgow life, and had determined to sail with his friend Laird at once for New York. There was no one he loved more dearly than David and Dr. Morrison, and with them his converse had been constant and very happy and hopeful. He wished to leave his old life with this conclusion to it ...
— Scottish sketches • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... nature was not likely to have designed infants to be suckled by other women than their own mothers, nor that they should be banished from the society of those who are most concerned in their well-being, from the cheerful hearth and wise affectionate converse of home, to the frigid discipline of colleges and convents and ...
— Rousseau - Volumes I. and II. • John Morley

... but I cannot answer questions. I cannot converse rationally any longer. You had better go away, Mr. Dalzell, and let me have a little rest, ...
— Mr. Hogarth's Will • Catherine Helen Spence

... me caution you against the foolish affectation which some girls practice in order to attract the attention of young men. In their company be natural in your manners, open and friendly and ready to converse on general subjects; not appearing to expect that every one who pays you the ordinary courtesies of society is going to fall in love with you. This mode of behavior, which is more common with those who are vain of their beauty than with others, frequently leads to such ...
— The Ladies Book of Useful Information - Compiled from many sources • Anonymous

... confinement so severe a punishment even to the most daring minds. It is a lower degree of the same cause that renders continuous seclusion from society so injurious to both mental and physical health. This explains why persons who are cut off from social converse by some bodily infirmity so frequently become discontented and morose, in spite of every resolution to the contrary. The feelings and faculties of the mind, which had formerly full play in their intercourse with their fellow-creatures, have no longer scope for sufficient exercise, and the ...
— Popular Education - For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes • Ira Mayhew

... the 'witching hour!' But would you think it too much to mount your horse now, and ride with me, before you send your despatches to your cabinet? I must visit the troops of the left wing without delay; we can converse on the way." ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 • Various

... remarks to 'IM," said the keeper as the carter came up broadside to them. "'E's a bloomin' dook, 'e is. 'E don't converse with no one under a earl. 'E's off to Windsor, 'e is; that's why 'e's stickin' his be'ind out so haughty. Pride! Why, 'e's got so much of it, 'e has to carry some of it in that there bundle there, for fear 'e'd bust if 'e didn't ...
— The Wheels of Chance - A Bicycling Idyll • H. G. Wells

... now on his way home, as if disdaining longer converse with one who refused to listen to reason. The constable followed at his side, growling the whole way, and reproaching the General with his perfidy, the latter protesting it was Basset's own fault, "when he knew dere was a hole dere," and that he would have nothing to do with him, or with ...
— The Lost Hunter - A Tale of Early Times • John Turvill Adams

... Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, Above the flight of Pegasean wing! The meaning, not the name, I call; for thou Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top Of old Olympus dwell'st; but heavenly-born, Before the hills appeared or fountain flowed, Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse, Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased With thy celestial song. Up led by thee, Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed, An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal ...
— The Astronomy of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' • Thomas Orchard

... Designing or exhorting glorious war, Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled, Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey Or racking whirlwinds, or for ever sunk Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains, There to converse with everlasting groans, Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, Ages of hopeless end? This would be worse. War, therefore, open or concealed, alike My voice dissuades; for what can force or guile With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye Views all ...
— Paradise Lost • John Milton

... delight at this pleasant incident in their monotonous life; but their ways of showing enjoyment were various and amusing. Some wanted only to look on; others were glad to talk to any English lady who could converse with them, while others again were much taken up with the sweetmeats and ices. The behaviour of two ladies amused me immensely. Their servant having awkwardly upset and broken a glass, spilling the contents on the floor, they immediately flew at her and slapped her so hard that the sound of ...
— The Last Voyage - to India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' • Lady (Annie Allnutt) Brassey

... visit these placid waters to throw one glance upon the home of genius, the birthplace of great thoughts. Here Wilson was in his element. His soul feasted itself on the wondrous charms of Nature, and held high converse with the master-minds of literature. There was quite enough to satisfy the cravings even of his multiform spirit. He soon came to know, and to be on terms of greater or less intimacy with, Coleridge, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 65, March, 1863 • Various

... world, but he that seems solicitous about his happiness in the next. My dear doctor, I am forsaken by all my acquaintance, utterly neglected by the friends of my bosom and the dependants of my bounty. But no matter; I am not now fit to converse with the first, and have no ability to serve the latter. Let me not be cast off wholly, however, by the good. Favour me with a visit, dear doctor, as soon as possible. Writing to you gives me some ease, especially upon a subject I could talk of for ever. I am of opinion ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, - Issue 286, December 8, 1827 • Various

... Linus, Musaeus,—those faint poetic sounds and echoes of a name, dying away on the ears of us modern men; and those hardly more substantial sounds, Mimnermus, Ibycus, Alcaeus, Stesichorus, Menander. They lived not in vain. We can converse with these bodiless ...
— A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers • Henry David Thoreau

... Mr. Taggett was disposed to converse as they wended their way to Mitchell's Alley. Richard's ire was slowly kindling at the shameful light in which he had been placed by Mr. Taggett, and Mr. Taggett was striving with only partial success to reconcile himself to the idea of young Shackford's innocence. Young Shackford's innocence was ...
— The Stillwater Tragedy • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... the Company of Strangers, especially White Men; and doubtless would be very familiar, if the Custom of the Country did not debar them from that freedom, which seems coveted by them. Yet from the highest to the lowest they are allowed liberty to converse with, or treat strangers in the sight ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898—Volume 39 of 55 • Various

... for the polishing and civilizing of Mankind. It is certain the Country-People would soon degenerate into a kind of Savages and Barbarians, were there not such frequent Returns of a stated Time, in which the whole Village meet together with their best Faces, and in their cleanliest [Habits, [2]] to converse with one another upon indifferent Subjects, hear their Duties explained to them, and join together in Adoration of the Supreme Being. >Sunday clears away the Rust of the whole Week, not only as it ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... love, you declare. I think not so; yet I grant you It is a pleasure, indeed, to converse with this girl. Oh, rare gift, Rare felicity, this! she can talk in a rational way, can Speak upon subjects that really are matters of mind and of thinking, Yet in perfection retain her simplicity; never, one moment, Never, however you ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 • Various

... well-known and conspicuous instance of the assumption by an animal of the appearance of a vegetable structure (see illustration on p. 35); and the bee, fly, and spider orchids are familiar examples of a converse resemblance. Birds, butterflies, reptiles, and even fish, seem to bear in certain instances a similarly striking resemblance to other birds, butterflies, reptiles, and fish, of altogether distinct kinds. The ...
— On the Genesis of Species • St. George Mivart

... made the contest more acrimonious. The conservatives afterwards felt the bitterness of defeat, and it was many years before they recovered from this. A resident graduate of Harvard, who was accustomed to converse on such subjects as the metaphysics of Hamilton's quaternions, once said that Longfellow was the paragon of schoolgirls, because he wrote what they would like to so much better than they could. This was contemptible ...
— Cambridge Sketches • Frank Preston Stearns

... the will the assembled relatives dispersed from the room, leaving the two executors to converse together. ...
— Victor's Triumph - Sequel to A Beautiful Fiend • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... mythology already—quite as fabulous as the high-jumping cow. Indeed, people gathered together and behaved themselves much in the same pleasant and improbable way. Johnson County, and Natrona, and Converse, and others, to say nothing of the Cheyenne Club, had been jumping over the moon for some weeks, all on account of steers; and on the strength of this vigorous price of seventy-five, the Stanton Brothers were giving a barbecue at the Goose Egg outfit, their ranch ...
— The Virginian - A Horseman Of The Plains • Owen Wister

... very little purpose, his eminence expressed a wish to see his lordship on board, that he might converse with him respecting this situation of affairs; and they, accordingly, accompanied him thither. Sir William Hamilton interpreted between Lord Nelson and Cardinal Ruffo, till he was almost exhausted with fatigue. The dispute lasted about two hours, and frequently ran very high; the ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. II (of 2) • James Harrison

... entertain them, I fancy, or you. What a dreary thing a dinner party made up of such people must be—like "Aesop's Fables," where the cows and sheep converse.' ...
— Wylder's Hand • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... this they drank, and enjoyed themselves, and held sweet converse together, and then the Prince took leave of her, and went on to the second sister, the one who lived in the silver palace, and with her also he stayed awhile. She told him that her brother Norka was then at her youngest ...
— The Red Fairy Book • Various

... Tristam Shandy, says, "Whenever a man's conscience does accuse him (as it seldom errs on that side), he is guilty, and unless he is melancholy and hypochondriac, there is always sufficient ground for the accusation. But the converse of the proposition will not hold true," that if it does not accuse, the man ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, September 1887 - Volume 1, Number 8 • Various

... without danger of being materially altered in translation Moreover, it is always an interesting test for the child. Bobertag goes so far as to say that any 8- or 9-year child who passes this test cannot possibly be feeble-minded. This may be true; but the converse is hardly the case; that is, the failure of older children is by no means certain proof of mental retardation. The same observation, however, applies equally well to many other of the Binet tests, some of which correlate more closely with true ...
— The Measurement of Intelligence • Lewis Madison Terman

... of June, while waiting for a wind to go in quest of a cacique named Carlos, who was reported by the Indians to have gold, an Indian came on board who was able to converse with the Spaniards, and who was consequently supposed to be a native of Hispaniola or of some of the other islands possessed by the Christians. This man desired them to remain at their present anchorage, as the cacique intended to send gold to barter. Accordingly, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 5 • Robert Kerr

... While Rabbis were discoursing in the synagogues of Tiberias and Babylon, Christian orators were preaching in the basilicas of Constantinople and Rome. They have all gone from this mortal scene. But their thoughts are handed down, so that we may converse with them, though they are no longer on earth. We can hear their wisdom—we can see their errors—we can almost fancy we behold their forms—so that, being dead, they yet speak. Since they ceased from their labors empires have risen and fallen, countless millions of our ...
— Hebrew Literature

... infinitely holy one, the supreme judge and just rewarder or punisher of all creatures. How shall we, who are impure and unclean by nature and by practice, draw near unto him who is so infinitely holy? Others of our race who were equally guilty have held acceptable converse with God, and received special marks of his favour. We all know that a talented man, high in office, retired at certain times for prayer; this gave offence, and a law was made, by which prayer to God was interdicted for thirty days. He refused obedience to a human law which interfered with the ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... wisdom of Monsieur Malin's advice, and implicitly followed it. Bracebridge helped him, and they in a short time were able to converse together. In the meantime Ellis got leave to learn French, and some of the boys were very much surprised, and rather indignant, to find him put in one of the ...
— Ernest Bracebridge - School Days • William H. G. Kingston

... that Number Seven had interrupted me. In fact, it is a good thing once in a while to break in upon the monotony of a steady talker at a dinner-table, tea-table, or any other place of social converse. The best talker is liable to become the most formidable of bores. It is a peculiarity of the bore that he is the last person to find himself out. Many a terebrant I have known who, in that capacity, to borrow a line ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... came at once to see what he could do. After a careful examination he said she had typhoid fever and progressive paralysis and that she was in grave danger. After a day or two she rallied, regained consciousness, and was able to converse with the family. Little Janet was just one month old the day Mary took sick, and Mrs. Jake Newby, now a very dear friend, took ...
— Around Old Bethany • Robert Lee Berry

... that to many souls the Lord has blessed what I have told them about the way in which he has led me, and therefore it seemed a duty to use such means, whereby others also, with whom I could not possibly converse, might be benefited. That which induced me finally to determine to write this Narrative was, that if the Lord should permit the book to sell, I might, by the profits arising from the sale, be enabled ...
— The Life of Trust: Being a Narrative of the Lord's Dealings With George Mueller • George Mueller

... told that he was dead, they seemed much concerned, and pronounced some words in a plaintive voice. So much had this man's superior knowledge, and his ability to converse in their language, rendered him valuable and beloved, even among a nation in a state of barbarism. Perhaps with the capacity which Providence had allotted to him, and which had been cultivated no farther than the simplicity of his education would permit, he was more adapted ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr

... converse with Darwin without being reminded of Socrates. There was the same desire to find some one wiser than himself; the same belief in the sovereignty of reason; the same ready humour; the same sympathetic interest in all the ways and works of men. But ...
— Darwiniana • Thomas Henry Huxley

... other point the Lord has been especially gracious to me, in that, while I have been unable to preach, unable to write or read much, or even to converse for any length of time with the brethren, He has allowed me always sufficient strength for as much secret prayer as I desired. Even praying with others has been often trying to my head; but prayer in secret has not only never tried my head, but has been ...
— A Narrative of some of the Lord's Dealings with George Mueller - Written by Himself. Second Part • George Mueller

... Gospel is at once profoundly individualistic and Socialistic. The prospect of gaining life, and preserving it for ever, is therefore also the highest which Jesus has set forth, it is not, however, to be a motive, but a reward of grace. In the certainty of this prospect, which is the converse of renouncing the world, he has proclaimed the sure hope of the resurrection, and consequently the most abundant compensation for the loss of the natural life. Jesus put an end to the vacillation and ...
— History of Dogma, Volume 1 (of 7) • Adolph Harnack

... more fully display the transcendant worth and excellency of the soul, than these two considerations:—first, That by the operation of the Eternal Spirit, it is made a habitation for God Himself, and susceptible of communion and converse with God, nay, of being even filled with all the fulness of God; and, second, The infinite price that was paid for its redemption from sin and woe—the precious blood of ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... as the Neofeuhrer goes over to converse with his crew. "It is our big chance," I whisper. "You watch how they run this tub for the next few minutes. Then when I cough three times you be ready. I do not know how much powder it will take to knock off the big bug as he is half ...
— Operation Earthworm • Joe Archibald

... perfidious. Be not obstinate then in a Design in which I will never shew you Favour. You owe to Constantia, after her Death, a Fidelity that may justify you: and I, to repair the Ills I have made her suffer ought to shun all converse with you.' 'Go, Madam (reply'd the Prince, growing pale) go, and expect the News of my Death; in that part of the World, whither your Cruelty shall lead you, the News shall follow close after; you shall quickly hear of it: ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume V • Aphra Behn

... before the opening of the Assembly, receiving the delegates of the nations, their staffs and secretaries, and even journalists. Crowds of little grave-faced Japs processed into the Hotel de la Paix; the entrance hall of Les Bergues was alive with the splendid, full-throated converse of Latin Americans ("Ah, they live, those Spaniards!" Henry sighed); while at the Beau Rivage the British Empire and the Dominions hastened, with the morbid ardour of their race, to plunge into ...
— Mystery at Geneva - An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings • Rose Macaulay

... much," said Ontario Moggs. Whereupon Polly, declining further converse on that delicate subject, and certainly not intending to grant the request made on ...
— Ralph the Heir • Anthony Trollope

... impulse to travel for pleasure keeps persons of wealth on the move, and the desire for knowledge sends the intellectually minded professional man or woman of small means globe-trotting. In this way the people of different nations learn from one another; they become able to converse in different languages and to get one another's point of view; they gain new wants while they lose some of their professional interests; they return home poorer in pocket but richer in experience, more interested in others, more tolerant. These are social values, certain to make their influence ...
— Society - Its Origin and Development • Henry Kalloch Rowe

... whether this space is a vacuum or filled with air; under either condition it will take up a stated weight of vapor. From this it appears that the vapor molecules find sufficient space between the molecules of air. But the converse is not true, for somewhat less air will be contained in a given space saturated with vapor than in one devoid of moisture. In other words the air does not seem to find sufficient space between ...
— Seasoning of Wood • Joseph B. Wagner

... converse with us. It was painful to her to talk with any person. She followed the Duke with her eyes. When, by some delicate allusion or attention, he let her perceive that she was in his thoughts, a mantling ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Number 9, July, 1858 • Various

... something of the aspect in which she regarded me, I dared not now make any such attempt. But I resolved to seize what opportunity might offer of convincing her that I was not so far out of sympathy with her as to be unworthy of holding closer converse; and I now began to feel distressed at what had given me little trouble before, namely, that she should suppose me the misleader of her brother, while I knew that, however far I might be from an absolute belief in things which she seemed never ...
— Wilfrid Cumbermede • George MacDonald

... I have generally followed, to converse in equal freedom with the deserving men of both parties; and it was never without some contempt, that I have observed persons wholly out of employment, affect to do otherwise: I doubted whether any man could owe ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IX; • Jonathan Swift

... angels if his interiors be so open as to enable him to speak and be in company with them, for man in his essence is a spirit, and is with spirits as to his interiors; so that he whose interiors are opened by the Lord may converse with them, as man with man. This privilege I have enjoyed daily now ...
— Myths and Marvels of Astronomy • Richard A. Proctor

... looks for fear They'll fall like those poor birds that see A snake's eyes staring at their tree. Some of them laugh, half-mad; and some All through the chilly night are dumb; Like poor, weak infants some converse, And cough like giants, deep ...
— Foliage • William H. Davies

... certain the country people would soon degenerate into a kind of savages and barbarians, were there not such frequent returns of a stated time in which the whole village meet together with their best faces and in their cleanliest habits to converse with one another upon indifferent subjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join together in adoration of the supreme Being. Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds the ...
— English Satires • Various

... book-form. Even if it should happen to be a quite new fact, an accident happily rare as the transit of Venus—a new fact about the North Pole, for instance—well, a book, not a conversation, is the place for it. To talk book, past, present, or to come, is not to converse. ...
— Prose Fancies • Richard Le Gallienne

... last, after a long and fatiguing journey, he had the satisfaction to find her in the palace of the sultan of Cashmeer. He then desired the princess to inform him of all that happened to her, from the time she was taken away, till that moment when he had the happiness to converse with her, telling her, that it was of the greatest importance to know this, that he might take the most proper measures to deliver her from the tyranny of the ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous

... destined for the true and ideal spectators—the representatives of humanity; in its centre was a round platform, the [Greek text]—originally the altar of Bacchus—from which the leader of these representatives, the leader of the Chorus, could converse with the actors on the stage and take his part in the drama; and round this thymele the Chorus ranged, with measured dance and song, chanting, to the sound of a simple flute, odes such as the world had never heard before or since, save perhaps in the temple-worship ...
— Lectures Delivered in America in 1874 • Charles Kingsley

... reached the dyke where the men were standing delving out the peat, it was to find a group of three fresh arrivals in the persons of Hickathrift the wheelwright, Dave, and John Warren, and all in earnest converse upon some subject. ...
— Dick o' the Fens - A Tale of the Great East Swamp • George Manville Fenn

... am convinced, is the medium of conversation, not only between superphysical animals, but between material animals, and if we ever wish to converse with spirits we must employ cats, dogs, ...
— Animal Ghosts - Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter • Elliott O'Donnell

... deeply interested in this subject, leading me to converse with parents and with ministers, and to make observation with regard to it, I have seen and heard many things relating to the providences of God, in connection with the baptism of children, which, while we ought to be slow in confidently interpreting providences, make us ...
— Bertha and Her Baptism • Nehemiah Adams

... everywhere, for men are no where, and babies anywhere." The maids seeing to bath and toilette, their mistresses met in the comfortable salon which was entered on either side from each sleeping chamber and small boudoir; soon in pleasant converse, or pauses of quiet, as friends who know and love each other can indulge in; Lady Esmondet and Vaura passed the time until the entree of Trevalyon to escort them to the salle a manger and table ...
— A Heart-Song of To-day • Annie Gregg Savigny

... effected a complete change in the social state of the country. But the most efficacious means of bringing that result about was the total destruction of the nobility and gentry. The crafty monarch knew that so long as the Irish could see and converse with their natural chieftains and lords, so long would it be impossible to extinguish or abate, in the slightest degree, the clan-spirit. It was only when the key-stone which held their social edifice together-the head of the sept-had disappeared, that the whole ...
— Irish Race in the Past and the Present • Aug. J. Thebaud

... himself before his master, to give an account of the tempest, and how he had disposed of the ship's company, and though the spirits were always invisible to Miranda, Prospero did not choose she should hear him holding converse (as would seem to her) with the ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb

... their hands where they do not give their hearts; and being ever afraid that they are courted for their money, they will never give their hearts save to wooers who have much more money than themselves. Many young men stop to do passing homage to the Ladies Prymme: some linger to converse; safe young men,—they are all younger sons. Farther on, Lady Frost and Mr. Crampe, the wit, sit amicably side by side, pecking at each other with sarcastic beaks; occasionally desisting, in order to fasten nip and claw upon that common ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... and before the meeting finally adjourned under the genial influence of good-fellowship and pleasant converse Mr. Peters's second book sale was voted to have been of ...
— The Booming of Acre Hill - And Other Reminiscences of Urban and Suburban Life • John Kendrick Bangs

... "you have taught me that these walls are full of crannies and ears. I will listen to no word against Phorenice. But I would have further converse with you soon. If you still have a kindness for me, go to the chamber that is mine and wait for me there. I ...
— The Lost Continent • C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne

... men of ignorance mistaking itself for knowledge, and by so doing to promote their intellectual and moral development." Like many other philosophers, he spent his time in the streets, markets, and other public places, arguing with any one who would stop to listen or converse. This manner of teaching was common in Athens, and he never lacked hearers. The whole atmosphere of the classic city was charged with the spirit of intellectual activity and philosophic discussion. Socrates did not teach positive doctrines, but assumed ignorance himself in order to convince ...
— History of Education • Levi Seeley

... ocean, for it seemed as though the Journal of Commerce reported every few days either his arrival or departure. Perhaps he reserved his loquacity for his native land, but at all events he exchanged in New York no converse with any one save in the strictest necessities of business; he had no intimates except a few anonymous Teutons as difficult of access as himself. He positively declined to make new friends, and it was evident that he had all the friends he desired to have; and in the ...
— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble

... of these pages herself fell into the habit of which she speaks; and it being usual with her benefactress to converse with all the unreserve which every honest mind shows when it feels it can confide, her humble attendant, not to lose facts of such importance, commonly made notes of what she heard. In any other person's hands the Journal of the Princess would have been incomplete; especially ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XV. and XVI., Volume 3 • Madame du Hausset, and of an Unknown English Girl and the Princess Lamballe

... now Bulstrode's turn to feel surprise, for I was conscious of his casting a keen look into my face, though I did not like to return it. My companion was silent for a minute; then, without again adverting to Anneke, he began to converse very sensibly on the subject of theatres and plays. I was both amused and instructed, for Mr. Bulstrode was an educated and a clever man; and a strange feeling came over the spirit of my dream, even then, as I listened to his conversation. This man, I thought, ...
— Satanstoe • James Fenimore Cooper

... a long evening spent in the freest and most social converse, my friend quitted the coffee-room, while I—imitating, as I went, the circumlocutory windings of the Meander—proceeded to my allotted chamber. Unfortunately, on reaching the head of the first staircase, where two opposite doors presented themselves, ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, - Issue 323, July 19, 1828 • Various

... Iris—happy little studies of her in delightfully natural poses. In one she was standing bare-headed beneath a tall date-palm, shading her eyes with her hand as though looking for someone across the expanse of sunny sand before her. In another she stood by the edge of the Nile, in converse with a native woman who bore a balass on her head; and even the tiny picture was sufficiently large to bring out the contrast between the slim, fair English girl in her white gown and Panama hat and the dusky Egyptian, whose dark skin and closely-swathed ...
— Afterwards • Kathlyn Rhodes

... through the straits than the wind, veering to the south-east, prevented them from making the course they had fixed upon, but they were able to coast along by the shore of Spain. They put into several small ports as they cruised up, but could obtain no intelligence of the Danes, being unable to converse ...
— The Dragon and the Raven - or, The Days of King Alfred • G. A. Henty

... said thou holdest converse with the things Which are forbidden to the search of man; That with the dwellers of the dark abodes, The many evil and unheavenly spirits Which walk the valley of the Shade of ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron

... the standard unit, its value is the converse of general prices; as prices go up the value of gold goes down, and gold is said to depreciate. As prices go down, the value of gold goes up and gold is said to appreciate. Rising prices mean falling ...
— Modern Economic Problems - Economics Vol. II • Frank Albert Fetter

... she was King Hendrick's Daughter? Did you not know that she was not your Wife? Have you not told us, holy Men like you Are by the Gods forbid all fleshly Converse? Have you not told us, Death, and Fire, and Hell Await those who are incontinent, Or dare to violate the Rites of Wedlock? That your God's Mother liv'd and died a Virgin, And thereby set Example to her Sex? What means all this? Say you such Things to us, That ...
— Ponteach - The Savages of America • Robert Rogers

... A is all B,' is the exact converse of the second, 'All A is some B,' and has therefore been denoted by the symbol [Upsilon], which resembles an ...
— Deductive Logic • St. George Stock

... which has occurred since the coming of your Lordship; for their burdens have been lightened by the reduction of the tributes from the former amount; and the Spaniards have done what they did not previously—that is, to treat the natives well, and to converse with them in a friendly manner. This, without doubt, will greatly incline them toward our holy Christian religion; and then the Indians cannot make this a matter of complaint against the Spaniards, but will keep silence and yield to whatever ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, V7, 1588-1591 • Emma Helen Blair

... be away from the ship for a week, and the doctor said that he need not return for some days. Could I have forgotten my disappointment in not meeting with Alfred and our grandfather, I should have considered those some of the most delightful days in my existence. Yet we did little but converse with Ricama and go about the estate, with short trips into some of the wilder regions of the island, and examine and hear about the trees, and shrubs, and fruits, and flowers, and animals, and insects, and ...
— My First Voyage to Southern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston

... alone once, when I was passing through the court below with hasty steps, and said to me, "Have you learned the Odes?" On my replying, "Not yet," he added, "If you do not learn the Odes, you will not be fit to converse with." Another day, 1 公山佛擾(史記, 狃). 2 閔損. in the same place and the same way, he said to me, "Have you read the rules of Propriety?" On my replying, "Not yet," he added, "If you do not learn the rules ...
— THE CHINESE CLASSICS (PROLEGOMENA) Unicode Version • James Legge

... I have not written anything in my diary, and thought I never should return to this childishness. Yet it is not childishness, but converse with my own self, with this real divine self which lives in every man. All this time that I slept there was no one for me to converse with. I was awakened by an extraordinary event on the 28th of April, in the Law Court, when I was on the jury. I saw her in the ...
— Resurrection • Count Leo Tolstoy

... there was a report spread in the City that there was a sort of people come there that went by the name of plain North Country plow men, who did differ in judgment to all other people in that City, who I was very desirous to see and converse with. And upon strict enquiry I was informed that they did meet at one Widow Matthews in White Cross Street, in her garden, where I repaired, where was our dear friends Edward Burrough and Francis Howgill, who declared the Lord's everlasting Truth in the demonstration of the Spirit ...
— A Book of Quaker Saints • Lucy Violet Hodgkin

... take, and plenty of it. We were, however, well treated, chiefly through the kindness of the French-speaking officer, Lieutenant Hishidi, with whom I struck up an acquaintance, he being in fact the only one of the gunboat's crew with whom I could converse. He caused a small separate cabin to be extemporized for myself and Lin Wong, and looked to our comfort in other ways. My friend Lin, I should say, had received a nasty graze on the ribs of the right side from one of ...
— Under the Dragon Flag - My Experiences in the Chino-Japanese War • James Allan

... change of habits or conditions of life, are allowed to persist unchanged through many generations, and thus furnish exceptionally good guides in the science of classification—or, according to our theory, in the work of tracing lines of pedigree. But now, the converse of this statement holds equally true. For it often happens that adaptive structures are required to change in different lines of descent in analogous ways, in order to meet analogous needs; and, when ...
— Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol. 1 and 3, of 3) • George John Romanes

... beauty, but as endowed with a style of beauty which left him indifferent, which aroused in him no desire, which gave him, indeed, a sort of physical repulsion; as one of those women of whom every man can name some, and each will name different examples, who are the converse of the type which our senses demand. To give him any pleasure her profile was too sharp, her skin too delicate, her cheek-bones too prominent, her features too tightly drawn. Her eyes were fine, but so large that they seemed ...
— Swann's Way - (vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past) • Marcel Proust

... in such emphatic terms to the queen, as raised a strong desire in her to see and converse with him herself. An invitation was accordingly sent him from the cardinal to repair to the court at Valladolid, without intimating the real purpose of it. Ximenes obeyed the summons, and, after a short interview with his early ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V2 • William H. Prescott

... there came a light footstep, and a soft, mock-startled "Who is that?" and one of that same sparkling group of girls that had lately hung upon Honore came so close to Raoul, in her attempt to discern his lineaments, that their lips accidentally met. They had but a moment of hand-in-hand converse before they were hustled forth by a feminine scouting party and thrust along into one of the great rooms of the house, where the youth and beauty of the Grandissimes were gathered in an expansive semicircle ...
— The Grandissimes • George Washington Cable

... thirdly, by certain special things pertaining to supererogation such as the religious life, the clerical state, or Holy Orders. Now if that which follows be removed, that which precedes, remains, but the converse does not hold. Accordingly a man may apostatize from God, by withdrawing from the religious life to which he was bound by profession, or from the Holy Order which he had received: and this is called "apostasy from religious life" ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... It is necessary that we should not be afraid to soil our boots and clothing, that we should not fear lice and bedbugs, that we should not fear typhus fever, diphtheria, and small-pox. It is necessary that we should be in a condition to seat ourselves by the bunk of a tatterdemalion and converse earnestly with him in such a manner, that he may feel that the man who is talking with him respects and loves him, and is not putting on airs and admiring himself. And in order that this may be so, it ...
— What To Do? - thoughts evoked by the census of Moscow • Count Lyof N. Tolstoi

... not kindly; shun Inviting brothers; sire and son Is not a wise selection: Too intimate, they either jar In converse, or the evening mar ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 12, Issue 327, August 16, 1828 • Various

... philosophic mind," he would doubtless have done for the human spirit, in its purely isolated self-communings, what Wordsworth did for it in its communion with external nature. All that the poetry of Wordsworth is for the mind which loves to hold converse with the world of things; this, and more perhaps than this—if more be possible—would the poetry of Coleridge have been for the mind which abides by preference in the world of self-originating emotion and introspective thought. ...
— English Men of Letters: Coleridge • H. D. Traill

... three people to dine with me on every day on which I have not a great dinner. By this means I get acquainted with individuals, and if my bees have any honey in them I extract it at the moment of the day when it is most gushing.[2] It is very convenient, besides, because it enables me to converse by candlelight with persons who want to talk to me about their private affairs, instead of wasting daylight upon them. Unless I get out of sorts, I hope to become personally acquainted in this way with everyone, ...
— Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin • James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

... They repress no gaiety or animation which keeps free of offence; they divest seriousness of an air of severity or pride. In conversation, good manners restrain the vehemence of personal or party feelings, and promote that versatility which enables people to converse readily with strangers, and take a passing interest in any subject that may ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 • Various

... the absence of playmates, and the habitual converse with mature minds, which, at so early an age, inspired Jane with that insatiate thirst for knowledge which she ever manifested. Books were her only resource in every unoccupied hour. From her walks with her father, and her domestic employments with her mother, she turned to her little ...
— Madame Roland, Makers of History • John S. C. Abbott

... acknowledged with fervent love, the mercies of her Redeemer. She had made great progress in learning their language, and had also taught her friends to speak and understand much of her own tongue, so that they were now no longer at a loss to converse with her on any subject. Thus was this Indian girl united to them in bonds of social ...
— Lost in the Backwoods • Catharine Parr Traill

... Egypt, where the lotus sips the waters Of ever-fruitful Nile, and the huge Sphinx In awful silence,—mystic converse with The stars,—doth see the pale moon hang her crescent on The pyramid's sharp peak,—e'en there, well in The straits of Time's perspective, Went out, by Caesarean gusts from Rome, The low-burned candle of the Ptolemies: Went out without ...
— The Darrow Enigma • Melvin L. Severy

... birds keep restaurants and feed wandering prophets free of expense; bears tear children in pieces for laughing at old men without wigs; muscular development depends upon the length of one's hair; dead people come to life, simply to get a joke on their enemies and heirs; witches and wizards converse freely with the souls of the departed, and God himself becomes a stone-cutter and engraver, after having been a ...
— Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Volume I • Robert Green Ingersoll

... Ark fresh from the toy shop. There are two towns: Willemstad, and, joined to it by bridges, Otrabanda. It is on the Willemstad side that the ships tie up, and where, from the deck to the steamer, one can converse quite easily with the Monsanto brothers in their drawing-room, or with the political exiles on the balconies of the Hotel Commercial. The streets are narrow and, like the streets of Holland, paved with round cobblestones as clean ...
— The White Mice • Richard Harding Davis

... converse the dessert arrived. It consisted of three apples, cheese, and a plate of preserves; and then upon a little round table was served the Mocha coffee, for which France has been, and is, so ...
— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton

... doing my best to master the tartar tongue, I can converse more readily here. The Little Russian dialect is very different from Russian but one can get a long. The Red Cross will probably be stationed here throughout the famine—until the 'New Bread,' that is about the end of July—but Baroness Ixkull promised to replace me as soon as she ...
— Nelka - Mrs. Helen de Smirnoff Moukhanoff, 1878-1963, a Biographical Sketch • Michael Moukhanoff

... palace; and which, being at a height of little more than eight feet above the eye, might be read, like the pages of a book, by those (the noblest men in Venice) who habitually walked beneath the shadow of this great arcade at the time of their first meeting each other for morning converse. ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume II (of 3) • John Ruskin

... modern English way of pronouncing Latin was a deliberate invention of the Protestant reformers. For this view there is no foundation in fact. It may be conceded that English ecclesiastics and scholars who had frequent occasion to converse in Latin with Italians would learn to pronounce it in the Italian way; and no doubt the Reformation must have operated to arrest the growing tendency to the Italianization of English Latin. But there is no evidence that before ...
— Society for Pure English Tract 4 - The Pronunciation of English Words Derived from the Latin • John Sargeaunt

... "I go to-morrow at five. Don't wear anything that will make them think we're going to sit round and converse with Aunt Hortense all the evening. I'm going up to ...
— Four Days - The Story of a War Marriage • Hetty Hemenway



Words linked to "Converse" :   chatter, chaffer, jaw, contend, interview, chew the fat, conversation, confabulate, natter, confab, debate, fence, claver, proposition, talk, backward, chat, chitchat, antonymous, gossip, visit, chit-chat, question, speak, argue, shoot the breeze



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