Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Distinguish   /dɪstˈɪŋgwɪʃ/   Listen
Distinguish

verb
(past & past part. distinguished; pres. part. distinguishing)
1.
Mark as different.  Synonyms: differentiate, secern, secernate, separate, severalise, severalize, tell, tell apart.
2.
Detect with the senses.  Synonyms: discern, make out, pick out, recognise, recognize, spot, tell apart.  "I can't make out the faces in this photograph"
3.
Be a distinctive feature, attribute, or trait; sometimes in a very positive sense.  Synonyms: differentiate, mark.
4.
Make conspicuous or noteworthy.  Synonyms: signalise, signalize.
5.
Identify as in botany or biology, for example.  Synonyms: describe, discover, identify, key, key out, name.



Related search:



WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Distinguish" Quotes from Famous Books



... and the fountain forms the centre of a little clearing where the moss is thick at all seasons and starred in August with wild pinks. The water, though deep, is deliciously clear. At a depth of more than six feet you can distinguish the dead leaves at the bottom, the grass, the twigs, and here and there a stone's iridescent outline. They all lie asleep there, the waste of seasons gone by, soon to be covered by others in their turn. From time to time out of the depths of these submerged thickets an eft darts up. He comes ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... I shall, I fear, have contradictors, but I address myself to those who look for truth. To judge impartially we must take into account the influence which time and circumstances exercise on men; and distinguish between the different characters of the Collegian, the General, the Consul, ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

... mark you can distinguish on the line nearest to your hand at the expiration of the allotted twenty-eight or fourteen seconds, when the man holding the glass sings out "Stop!" as the last grain of sand empties itself out of the bulb, that will be the ...
— Crown and Anchor - Under the Pen'ant • John Conroy Hutcheson

... minutes had elapsed he could distinguish the sound of voices, and a few seconds later he was running at full speed toward the person from whom he had previously ...
— Neal, the Miller - A Son of Liberty • James Otis

... revolts and kills the man who has subjugated it.... I should also like ... I shall be able to ... but I must know him, touch him, see him! Learned men say that beasts' eyes, as they differ from ours, do not distinguish like ours do ... And my eye cannot distinguish this newcomer who ...
— Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories • Edited by Julian Hawthorne

... brought crowds in from the country to the Irish capital. Such an experience would certainly have given him a new understanding of some then neglected men and things. While I was opening the morning's letters and dealing with "Files" marked "urgent," he would see nothing to distinguish my day's work from that of other ministers, who act as a link between the permanent officials of a spending Department and the Government of the day. But presently a stream of callers would set in, and he ...
— Ireland In The New Century • Horace Plunkett

... white, with diamonds flashing on a glittering coil of gold hair, and wondrous sea-blue earnest eyes, passes through their midst with that royal free step and composed grace of bearing that might distinguish ...
— Thelma • Marie Corelli

... to the various abodes in which they are met with. Thus, among the long green grass we find a variety of long green insects, whose legs and antennae so resemble the shoots emanating from the stalks of the grass that it requires a practiced eye to distinguish them. Throughout sandy districts varieties of insects are met with of a color similar to the sand which they inhabit. Among the green leaves of the various trees of the forest innumerable leaf-colored insects are to be found; while, closely adhering ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 3, August, 1850. • Various

... which it is impossible for us to know; and I hope you have the same charity for us. I pray daily for your being all restored to Christ's church, by whatsoever methods he, who is all-wise, is pleased to direct. In the mean time, sure you will allow it to consist with me, as a Roman, to distinguish far between a Protestant and a Pagan; between him that calls on Jesus Christ, though in a way which I do not think is according to the true faith; and a savage, a barbarian, that knows no God, no Christ, no Redeemer ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe

... already gazing at him; and suddenly I saw their glances cross like steel rapiers. They had evidently recognized each other; and going up to the gentleman of the spectacles, Nighthawk said a few words in a low voice, which I did not distinguish. ...
— Mohun, or, The Last Days of Lee • John Esten Cooke

... true Varangian Guard, that we would rather have lost the brightest jewel from our Imperial crown, than have relinquished the service of this true and faithful Anglo-Saxon. But since go he must and will, it shall be my study to distinguish him by such marks of beneficence as may make it known through his future life, that he is the person to whom the Emperor Alexius Comnenus acknowledged a debt larger than his empire could discharge. You, my Lord Tancred, and your principal leaders, will sup with us this evening, and to-morrow ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott

... sorry to have to inform you that some people on board cannot distinguish between falsity and truth," she answered. "But please don't be angry with any of the men on my account. Mr. Hozier tells me they often confuse the False Cross with the real one, and the mistake has been enjoyable. Now ...
— The Stowaway Girl • Louis Tracy

... tobacker? (I.e., that which has been bought. A very common word in the interior of New England and New York. It is applied to articles purchased from the shops, to distinguish them from articles of home manufacture. Many farmers make their own sugar from the maple-tree, and their coffee from barley or rye. West India sugar or coffee is then called "boughten sugar," &c. "This is a home-made ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 1 • Charles Farrar Browne

... rich, were always required to be proficients in their own trade; and thus Miguel, or Michael as he was known in England, was able to maintain himself and his child by the fabrication of blades that no one could distinguish from those of Damascus. Their perfection was a work of infinite skill, labour, and industry, but they were so costly, that their price, and an occasional job of inlaying gold in other metal, sufficed ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... clouded for ever. She never took any more notice of her chickens, who had to be brought up by hand, and she never mixed again with the society of the poultry-yard. At night she roosted apart in the coalshed, and she never seemed to hear my voice or distinguish me from others, though she was perfectly tame to everybody. Kitty's end was very tragical. She grew exceedingly fat, and at last, one time when we were all snowed up and could not afford to be sentimental, my cook laid hold of poor Kitty, who was moping in her usual corner, and converted her into ...
— Station Amusements • Lady Barker

... returns, made up shortly before the army marched for New York, there were 13,145 men of all arms then enrolled, of whom not more than 9,500 were reported as fit for duty. These were all Continentals,[2] as the regular troops were then called, to distinguish them from ...
— The Campaign of Trenton 1776-77 • Samuel Adams Drake

... to witness the unjust interpretation of that wonder of nature, which, but for Brander's death, might have been consecrated and hallowed as one of the ideal functions of life. Although herself unable to distinguish the separateness of this from every other normal process of life, yet was she made to feel, by the actions of all about her, that degradation was her portion and sin the foundation as well as the condition of her state. Almost, ...
— Jennie Gerhardt - A Novel • Theodore Dreiser

... account; to be kind to the feeble and unwarlike; and, in short, all that it became brave men to feel and to think and to do in war and in peace. Also there were those who taught them the history of their ancestors, the great names of the Clanna Rury, and to distinguish between those who had done well and those who had not done so well, and the few who had done ill. And these their several instructors appointed by Concobar Mac Nessa and the council of his wise men were famous captains of the Ultonians, and approved bards ...
— The Coming of Cuculain • Standish O'Grady

... to distinguish anything. We might have been in a sphere of steel for all that we could see. My rubbing with the blanket simply smeared the glass, and as fast as I wiped it, it became opaque again with freshly condensed moisture mixed with an increasing ...
— The First Men In The Moon • H. G. Wells

... round him, a dozen jabbering all at once. Faster even than before they ran on, amid which we could now and then distinguish words which sounded like oomiaksook, hennelay, cob-loo-nak, yemeck. These words, as we had read, meant big ship, woman, Englishman, water, respectively. But it was utterly impossible to make out in what connection they were used. ...
— Left on Labrador - or, The cruise of the Schooner-yacht 'Curlew.' as Recorded by 'Wash.' • Charles Asbury Stephens

... nothing in things themselves that enables us to distinguish in them either good or evil, right or wrong. It is but man's fancy that weighs their merits and causes him to choose one and ...
— The Religions of Japan - From the Dawn of History to the Era of Meiji • William Elliot Griffis

... deliver my thoughts from daily poring upon them, and afflicting my mind: and as my reason began now to master my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could, and to set the good against the evil, that I might have something to distinguish my case from worse; and I stated very impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner, Vol. 1 • Daniel Defoe

... ready to make my reappearance, there came a smart double knock at the door; and then, after a minute or two, I could distinguish a gentleman's footstep ascending the staircase to ...
— Valerie • Frederick Marryat

... I thieves! help! hoy! thieves, I say!" accompanied by the noise of blows. When these sounds first reached me I was close to a hedge and stile, across which the footpath led, and from the farther side of which the cries proceeded. It was growing dark, but there still remained light enough to distinguish objects at a moderate distance. To bound over the stile and cast my eyes around was the work of a moment, nor was I much longer in taking part in an affray which ...
— Frank Fairlegh - Scenes From The Life Of A Private Pupil • Frank E. Smedley

... couple of minutes they reached the thicket where the previous meeting had taken place. The over-arching foliage deepened the darkness so that it was impossible to distinguish features. A form was dimly seen, but it was only by the sound of the voice that they knew it ...
— The Fugitives - The Tyrant Queen of Madagascar • R.M. Ballantyne

... before you do anything about it," begged George. "Give the Tramp Club a chance to distinguish themselves. If we don't get our man by six o'clock to-night, then put the matter in the hands of the authorities. In the meantime, won't you accept our hospitality for the day? We offer you the use of our camp while we go ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat • Janet Aldridge

... the latest school fashion; and about the beginning of winter it appeared that concerts in which one took part were necessary to one's intellectual existence. Forest Glen at once decided it must have one, and Lottie Price, seeing a chance to distinguish herself as a reciter, once more took at the flood the tide that would sweep her on to glory, and boldly proffered a request ...
— 'Lizbeth of the Dale • Marian Keith

... finished before the faster can plainly distinguish the white thread from the black thread (Koran ii. 183); some understand this literally, others apply it to the dark and silvery streak of zodiacal light which appears over the Eastern horizon an hour or so before sunrise. The ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... grappled with the unknown behind the door. That struggle would have been short, for he was like a child in my grasp. But instantly I was seized from all sides at once, it seemed. It was as if a dozen hands were feeling over me, to distinguish ...
— The Paternoster Ruby • Charles Edmonds Walk

... distinguish between the meaning of the German term "Kultur" and that commonly expressed in English by the word "culture." The word "Kultur" in modern German is simply equivalent to our word "civilization," whereas the ...
— German Culture Past and Present • Ernest Belfort Bax

... little, just before the dawn. And such a dawn! Such infinite softness of air, such dew-drenched verdure! It is a backward spring, they say, but to me the woods are even lovelier than in their summer wealth of foliage, when one can hardly distinguish the beauty of the single tree from that of its neighbours, since the colours are blended in one universal green. Now we see the feathery tassels of the beech bursting out of their brown husks, the russet hues of the young oak leaves, ...
— Penelope's Irish Experiences • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... favourite daughter. I suppose it's a mistake to distinguish between one's children, to favour one beyond the other. But she was just that—my favourite daughter—always. She had a dash, a spirit, a joyous soul. Years ago I saw that she would develop into ...
— The Winning Clue • James Hay, Jr.

... small lane or gasse, regarding the geography of which I was quite at sea, for I had only been in it once before. I stepped from the street into the lane, which was in the very blackness of darkness, and seemed to be filled with wind and a hurricane which one could almost distinguish and grasp. ...
— The First Violin - A Novel • Jessie Fothergill

... glitter of golden opportunities. If I did not shrink from disparaging the constitution of their native land for their own credit, I should say that it had never been very definitely proposed to these young gentlemen to distinguish themselves. On reaching manhood, they had each come into property sufficient to make violent exertion superfluous. Gordon Wright, indeed, had inherited a large estate. Their wants being tolerably modest, they had not been tempted ...
— Confidence • Henry James

... to-day is for men of public spirit; for men who will seek the highest welfare of their fellow-citizens in general; men of broad and generous views; men who look out upon life with an absence of that littleness and near-sightedness which cannot distinguish between public good and ...
— The True Citizen, How To Become One • W. F. Markwick, D. D. and W. A. Smith, A. B.

... We must distinguish between Christ's love for all men and his friendship for particular individuals. He was in the world to reveal the Father, and all the divine compassion for sinners was in his heart. It was this mighty love that brought him to earth ...
— Personal Friendships of Jesus • J. R. Miller

... something that he wouldn't promise, "that the Cassiterides of the Phoenicians contained deposits of the same sulphuret. Indeed, I defy anyone," he continued, for he was piqued in his scientific pride, "to distinguish it from gold without a laboratory-test. In large quantities, I concede, its lack of weight would betray it to a trained hand, but without testing its solubility in nitric acid, or the fact of its burning with a blue flame under the blow-pipe, it cannot be detected. In short, when ...
— Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich • Stephen Leacock

... is no distinction to be drawn. But this hypothesis is, as we all know, falsified by observation. The whole body of the knowable is formed from an agglomeration of extremely varied elements, amongst which it is easy to distinguish a large number of divisions. Things may be classified according to their colour, their shape, their weight, the pleasure they give us, their quality of being alive or dead, and so on; one much given to classification would only be troubled by the ...
— The Mind and the Brain - Being the Authorised Translation of L'me et le Corps • Alfred Binet

... made no reservation?" inquired I, in the low muttering tone which is used at the confessional; for although neither party can distinguish the person of the other, I did not wish ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat

... which, on looking to the eastward down a prattling brook, whose meanders were shaded with straggling widows and alder trees, she could see the cottages of Woodend and Beersheba, the haunts and habitation of her early life, and could distinguish the common on which she had so often herded sheep, and the recesses of the rivulet where she had pulled rushes with Butler, to plait crowns and sceptres for her sister Effie, then a beautiful but spoiled child, of about three years old. The recollections which the scene brought with ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... great masters, especially of the Italian schools, are genuine allegories. Amongst the classics, the multitude of their gods either precluded allegory altogether, or else made every thing allegory, as in the Hesiodic Theogonia; for you can scarcely distinguish between power and the personification of power. The 'Cupid and Psyche' of, or found in, Apuleius, is a phenomenon. It is the Platonic mode of accounting for the fall of man. The 'Battle of the Soul' [1] by Prudentius is an early instance of ...
— Literary Remains (1) • Coleridge

... es Sar, (Jazer?) whence the Dead Sea was again visible. Our Arabs declared that they could distinguish the Frank mountain, and see into the streets of Bethlehem. Here there is a mere heap of ruin, with cisterns, and fragments of arches, large columns, and capitals; also a very rough cyclopean square building of brown striped flint ...
— Byeways in Palestine • James Finn

... Ratonneau, where the lighthouse stood, on the right, and were now opposite the Point des Catalans. It seemed to the prisoner that he could distinguish a feminine form on the beach, for it was there Mercedes dwelt. How was it that a presentiment did not warn Mercedes that her lover was within ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... Poor fellow! I do not know what we must do for him. I think I shall advise him to change his name to Clayville; and if the world ask him the reason of the euphonious augmentation, why, he can swear it was to distinguish himself from his brothers. Too many roues of the same name will never do. And now spurs to our steeds! for we are going at least three miles out of our way, and I must collect my senses and arrange my curls before dinner, for I have to flirt with at ...
— Vivian Grey • The Earl of Beaconsfield

... very beautiful, and Dorothy noticed that on the cloud banks sat or reclined fleecy, shadowy forms of beautiful beings who must have been the Cloud Fairies. Mortals who stand upon the earth and look up at the sky cannot often distinguish these forms, but our friends were now so near to the clouds that they observed the dainty ...
— Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz • L. Frank Baum.

... To-day I wake in a royal bed and my varlets call me monseigneur. There are but three ways of explaining this singular situation. Either I am drunk or I am mad or I am dreaming. If I am drunk, I shall never distinguish Bordeaux Wine from Burgundy—a melancholy ...
— If I Were King • Justin Huntly McCarthy

... of at once condoling with you for the loss of your brave general, and congratulating you on the credit you have gained in that action. 'Tis said you behaved well—you behaved gallantly. I never doubted but you would distinguish yourself, and your praise is now in every man's mouth. It has been my theme of late. I will not say I was perfectly disinterested in the encomiums I bestowed. You were a son of Nassau Hall, and reflected honour on the place ...
— Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Complete • Matthew L. Davis

... own despight. But no escape from marriage now remains, Nor other subterfuge for me; meantime My parents urge my nuptials, and my son (Of age to note it) with disgust observes His wealth consumed; for he is now become 200 Adult, and abler than myself to rule The house, a Prince distinguish'd by the Gods, Yet, stranger, after all, speak thy descent; Say whence thou art; for not of fabulous birth Art thou, nor from the oak, nor from the rock. Her answer'd then Ulysses, ever-wise. O spouse revered of Laertiades! Resolv'st thou still to learn from whom I sprang? Learn then; but ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer

... on the face of one a frown of anger, on the face of the other a frown of defiance, expressions almost identical, the only difference being the thirty years that divided their ages. For a few moments the young man did not distinguish Elsa in the throng, then a glad cry of recognition escaped him, and the cloud cleared from his face as if a burst of sunshine had penetrated the sombre-coloured windows and had thrown its illuminating halo around his head. He ...
— The Strong Arm • Robert Barr

... utmost importance, therefore, to distinguish between the natural fertility of the soil and the condition of the soil. A further example will help to illustrate this point. At the Rothamsted Station a certain type of soil has for over 60 years produced annually ...
— The Young Farmer: Some Things He Should Know • Thomas Forsyth Hunt

... upon many faithful hearts, and amid all the misery with which our planet was filled we seemed to distinguish a creeping paralysis of the established faiths. Just at the time when we most had need of religion, it seemed to weaken and vanish from our sight, though we knew that human life, when not enriched and ennobled by spiritual forces, sinks ...
— Modern Saints and Seers • Jean Finot

... guardian of an injured state!" (Replied the certain messenger of fate) "For well I know thee, once in battle seen: No length of years can change a hero's mien, Unalter'd as his soul; since in his lines The stamp of Heaven's own hand distinguish'd shines."— ...
— Gustavus Vasa - and other poems • W. S. Walker

... variance with the universal nature, and inasmuch as he disturbs the order by fighting against the nature of the world; for he fights against it, who is moved of himself to that which is contrary to truth, for he had received powers from nature through the neglect of which he is not able now to distinguish falsehood from truth. And indeed he who pursues pleasure as good, and avoids pain as evil, is guilty of impiety. For of necessity such a man must often find fault with the universal nature, alleging that it assigns things ...
— Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus • Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

... were not so inconceivably dingy and shabby; but, with their half-dozen stories, they make only the impression of hovel piled upon hovel,—squalor immortalized in undecaying stone. It was now getting far into the twilight, and I could not distinguish the particularities of the little town, except that there were shops, a cafe or two, and as many churches, all dusky with age, crowded closely together, inconvenient stifled too in spite of the breadth and freedom of the mountain atmosphere outside the scanty precincts of the street. ...
— Passages From the French and Italian Notebooks, Complete • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... Lichfield (nave), Ely (choir). In some cases, however (as at Salisbury, Westminster, Winchester, choir of Lichfield), the clearstory is magnified at the expense of the triforium (Fig. 135). Three peculiarities of design sharply distinguish the English treatment of these features from the French. The first is the multiplicity of fine mouldings in the pier-arches; the second is the decorative elaboration of design in the triforium; the third, the variety in the treatment of the clearstory. In general the English interiors are much ...
— A Text-Book of the History of Architecture - Seventh Edition, revised • Alfred D. F. Hamlin

... specially included cases not of merely diminished or increased, but of perverted development; the natural process is here not necessarily checked or enhanced, but it is changed. Hence, in the present work, the term metamorphy is employed to distinguish cases where the ordinary course of development has been perverted or changed. As it is applied solely for teratological purposes, the ordinary acceptation of the term, as nearly synonymous with "development," is ...
— Vegetable Teratology - An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants • Maxwell T. Masters

... strand, with its contents in something like the same condition in which they left the original spring. All these three methods are true, and this has impelled me to refuse to follow any one of them to the exclusion of the other two. I have tried to trace influences, to observe periods, to distinguish countries. I have also tried to derive color and vividness by selecting prominent personalities round which to group whole cycles of facts. Thus, some of the chapters bear the names of famous men, others are entitled from periods, others from countries, ...
— Chapters on Jewish Literature • Israel Abrahams

... they heard the distant report of cannon. As we marched, we endeavoured to distinguish on which side the battle was going on. But, with the exception of some troops of cossacks on that, as well as the ensuing days, the atmosphere alone displayed itself in the character of an enemy. In fact, the emperor had scarcely passed the river, when a rumbling ...
— History of the Expedition to Russia - Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 • Count Philip de Segur

... pleasure, in the midst of all this praise, is to think of the pleasure which my success will give to my father and my sisters. It is happy for me that ambition has in my mind been softened into a kind of domestic feeling, and that affection has at least as much to do as vanity with my wish to distinguish myself. This I owe to my dear mother, and to the interest which she always took in my childish successes. From my earliest years, the gratification of those whom I love has been associated with the gratification of my own thirst for fame, until the two have ...
— Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay • George Otto Trevelyan

... in italic, or even to use italic too freely for phrases, practically nullifies the value of it as a display letter for the sub-headings or for any other part of the book in which distinction is really needed. Quotation marks, indention, smaller type, or any of the marks which distinguish quoted ...
— The Uses of Italic - A Primer of Information Regarding the Origin and Uses of Italic Letters • Frederick W. Hamilton

... is the precise meaning of TALENT. In both the English translations of Eckermann the word is rendered "genius," and after the comparison between Byron, Shakespeare, and the ancients just quoted, we can hardly admit that Goethe meant to distinguish scientifically between the two orders of intellect and to ...
— Pages from a Journal with Other Papers • Mark Rutherford

... business of saving his own soul, in the very spirit of the miser, watching over his private hoard while his neighbors starve for lack of bread. But surely the benevolent unrest, the far-reaching sympathies and keen sensitiveness to the suffering of others, which so nobly distinguish our present age, can have nothing to fear from a plea for personal holiness, patience, hope, and resignation to the Divine will. "The more piety, the more compassion," says Isaac Taylor; and this is true, if we understand by piety, not self-concentred asceticism, but the pure religion and ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... an hour later, from her walk with Dr. Rob, her heart filled with glad anticipation, she found him standing in the window, listening to the countless sounds he was learning to distinguish. He looked so slim and tall and straight in his white flannels, both hands thrust deep into the pockets of his coat, that when he turned at her approach it seemed to her as if the shining ...
— The Rosary • Florence L. Barclay

... Men were sitting about in groups; the women, as before, keeping near their little shelters, laughing and chatting together, and sometimes quarrelling. From the manner of the men, who either sat or walked about, it was not difficult for Gregory to distinguish between the villagers, who had been dragged away from their homes and forced to enter the service of the Khalifa, and the Baggara and kindred tribes, who had so long held the Soudan in subjection. The former were quiet in their ...
— With Kitchener in the Soudan - A Story of Atbara and Omdurman • G. A. Henty

... Once or twice the watchers thought that they could hear faint sounds, but could not distinguish their direction. After half an hour's anxious waiting a terrible yell was heard from below, and at the doors and windows of the lower rooms came the crashing ...
— True to the Old Flag - A Tale of the American War of Independence • G. A. Henty

... with wonder. At that moment a side-door in the corner opened noiselessly, and Darya Pavlovna made her appearance. She stood still and looked round. She was struck by our perturbation. Probably she did not at first distinguish Marya Timofyevna, of whose presence she had not been informed. Stepan Trofimovitch was the first to notice her; he made a rapid movement, turned red, and for some reason proclaimed in a loud voice: "Darya Pavlovna!" so that all eyes ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... halved, and there were two men within me, neither of whom knew the other. At one moment I believed myself a priest who dreamed nightly that he was a gentleman, at another that I was a gentleman who dreamed he was a priest. I could no longer distinguish the dream from the reality, nor could I discover where the reality began or where ended the dream. The exquisite young lord and libertine railed at the priest, the priest loathed the dissolute habits of the young lord. ...
— Clarimonde • Theophile Gautier

... sisters were soon sleeping side by side, so much alike in every feature and limb, that no one looking at them would have been able to distinguish one ...
— By Berwen Banks • Allen Raine

... excellent effects upon the students, judging from their attitude at chapel, which they describe as fair. They are confronted, however, with the problem not so easily solved in answering the question. It is extremely difficult for them to distinguish just what part of that attitude comes from the influence of rules and regulations regarding chapel attendance and what part comes ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 5, 1920 • Various

... the morning shemang be read? From the moment when there is light enough to distinguish between purple-blue and white. Rabbi Eliezar says "between purple-blue and leek-green" (which are harder to distinguish) (3). Up to when may the morning shemang be read? Until the sun has risen. Rabbi ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books, Volume XIII. - Religion and Philosophy • Various

... "Portfolio" it had taken an entirely new line among English periodicals, but now there were two other art magazines similar in character and style of illustration, and both its editor and publisher were desirous of an alteration which would once more distinguish it from ...
— Philip Gilbert Hamerton • Philip Gilbert Hamerton et al

... higher, flooding the hollows and the low green hills with light. In the outlying fields around the Hall he saw Fletcher's planters at work in the tobacco, each man so closely followed by his shadow that it was impossible at a little distance to distinguish the living labourer from his airy double. All the harsh irregularities of the landscape were submerged in a general softness of tone, and the shapes of hill and meadow, of road and tree, of shrub and rock, were dissolved in ...
— The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields • Ellen Glasgow

... mine, and I could return his parting words without flinching; I saw him go without even a tear dimming my eye: so that I could watch him to the last, looking after our little boat again crossing the bar, till we could distinguish each other no more. ...
— Pioneers and Founders - or, Recent Workers in the Mission field • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... the scene proceeded, the stage carpenter and his staff of one having meanwhile extricated Eliza from the cake of ice and started her on the concluding portion of her journey to safety. It was then that William, burning to distinguish himself, and having a vague notion that "Chuck" Epstein, who was in the audience, had once declared that the actor who could interpolate telling lines in his part was on a fair way to fame, advanced solemnly to the front, regardless of the dropping curtain which ...
— William Adolphus Turnpike • William Banks

... chaos. This chaos has followed every effort of man that is written in history; after civilization has flowered, the flower falls and dies, and winter and darkness destroy it. While man refuses to make the effort of discrimination which would enable him to distinguish between the shapes of night and the active figures of day, this must ...
— Light On The Path and Through the Gates of Gold • Mabel Collins

... empty when Ritter and his following entered. They could scarcely see and had to grope their way after the young man that led them to seats in the parquet. Gradually, their eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, and they could distinguish the vast windowless cave, with its rows of seats, its galleries and painted ceiling. The air, smelling of dust and decay, lay heavily on Frederick's lungs. There were recesses in the great grotto that made ...
— Atlantis • Gerhart Hauptmann

... descendants of the Negrito race, who seem to become differentiated from their own species because of their extraordinarily wild and mountainous life." Hence the name seems to have been given these people in Mindanao simply to distinguish them as especially barbarous and difficult to establish relations among. They were probably one of the numerous tribes of Negritos such as inhabit ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXI, 1624 • Various

... under hypoth. B, to different depths in space, or under hypoth. A, to different arrangements of structure in the star. But thirdly, it is certain, that neither A nor B is the abiding law: and next it becomes an object by science and by instruments to distinguish more readily and more certainly between the cases where the distance has degraded the size, and the cases where the size being really less, has caused an exaggeration of the distance: or again, where the size being really less, yet co-operating with a distance really greater, ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey

... chief realized the need of haste, for he could already distinguish the sound of heavy footsteps in the hall below. He hoped, by freeing himself from Chester, who had now grappled with him again, that he could gain a moment's advantage, jump into the next room, dash through the hall and descend by the rear before ...
— The Boy Allies in the Trenches - Midst Shot and Shell Along the Aisne • Clair Wallace Hayes

... mind. It was forgotten that by no other means can savages be softened, or permanently conciliated. The effect, when adopted, was electric: they learned to address Mr. Robinson as their marmanake, or father, and thus to distinguish him from other white men. The stupidity attributed to barbarians, and the vacant laughter, with which they receive the announcement of new ideas in a foreign tongue, would be ascribed, by experienced teachers, to the absurdity of such a medium ...
— The History of Tasmania , Volume II (of 2) • John West

... sympathetic study by Mr. George Trevelyan. In this article we shall make an attempt to delineate, briefly of necessity and therefore inadequately, the characteristic qualities of form and thought, the technical methods and intellectual temperament which distinguish the younger poet, who may be destined to be the last survivor ...
— Studies in Literature and History • Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall

... taught most to esteem us; and this remarkably appears in the expression of Gemelli, the Italian traveller round the world, who wrote about the year 1700; for he told all Europe that "he could find nothing amongst us but our writings to distinguish us from the worst of barbarians." But to become an "Author by Profession," is to have no other means of subsistence than such as are extracted from the quill; and no one believes these to be so precarious as they really are, until ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli

... who came from the bright glare of the salon, a moment to distinguish in the darkness the features of the Countess who, dressed all in white, was lying upon a willow couch with soft cushions of silk. She was smoking a cigarette, the lighted end of which, at each breath she drew, gave sufficient light to show that, notwithstanding the coolness of the night, ...
— Cosmopolis, Complete • Paul Bourget

... that he was able to see the white old man, looking so frail and slender in the wavy folds of his white cassock, and walking so very slowly with short, gliding steps. The young priest could scarcely distinguish the emaciated face of old diaphanous ivory, emphasised by a large nose which jutted out above thin lips. However, the Pontiff's black eyes were glittering with an inquisitive smile, while his right ear ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola

... between actual honest banks, which although only a few inches above the water were positive boundaries. The flat plain was covered with large white ant-hills, and the ground was evidently firm in the distance, as we could distinguish a ...
— Ismailia • Samuel W. Baker

... was muttering to himself, still holding the wound in one hand. Mrs. Pat could distinguish no words, but it seemed to her that he repeated three times what he was saying. Then he straightened himself and stroked Pilot's quarter with a light, pitying hand. Mrs. Pat stared. The bleeding had ceased. The hunting-scarf lay on the road at the horse's empurpled hoof. There was nothing to explain ...
— All on the Irish Shore - Irish Sketches • E. Somerville and Martin Ross

... when I became old enough to understand. The truth was borne in on me a dozen times a day, from the time I began to distinguish words from empty noises. My grandmother told me about it, when she put me to bed at night. My parents told me about it, when they gave me presents on holidays. My playmates told me, when they drew me back into a corner of the gateway, to let a policeman ...
— The Promised Land • Mary Antin

... in reading and receiving the testimony of Scripture, learn to distinguish between the law and the gospel, and to keep them clear asunder, as to the salvation of ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... one the others followed, and Miss Lucinda could not distinguish them as they merged in the laughing crowd at ...
— Miss Mink's Soldier and Other Stories • Alice Hegan Rice

... person most concerned, would know if I were to call him 'Son,' the termination of 'Robinson,' you know," explained May, after a moment spent in concocting this subtle amendment, and in fondling the unconscious recipient of a title which was to distinguish him from the mass ...
— A Houseful of Girls • Sarah Tytler

... only to distinguish me from others. Who would ever enquire into the meaning of a name if it ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... Britain possessed, again in common with those of Gaul, a singular aptitude to understand and learn quickly. A short time after the Roman Conquest it becomes hard to distinguish Celtic from Roman workmanship among the objects discovered in tombs. Caesar is astonished to see how his adversaries improve under his eyes. They were simple enough at first; now they understand and foresee, and baffle his military stratagems. ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand

... they are born should be growing sluggish through ease and a long peace, most of the noble young men seek of their own accord those nations which are then waging war, both because a quiet life is hateful to this people, and because they can more easily distinguish themselves in perilous times, nor can they keep together a great train of henchmen, except by war and the strong hand. For it is from the generosity of their chief that each henchman expects that mighty war-horse which he would bestride, that gory ...
— Theodoric the Goth - Barbarian Champion of Civilisation • Thomas Hodgkin

... instead of doing all he can to avoid the spot once so much dreaded, now eagerly runs for it, and counts himself happy when he gets sight of the revolving star on the top, which, from its being variously colored he can distinguish from any other light in that quarter. He is then enabled to steer directly for his port in perfect security, though the ...
— The World of Waters - A Peaceful Progress o'er the Unpathed Sea • Mrs. David Osborne

... the sun had spread its rays over the heights of this quaint old Quaker town sufficient to distinguish objects a few feet away, the guns were booming along the crossings of Antietam. With a hurried breakfast Kershaw took up the line of march along the dusty roads in the direction of the firing, which had begun by daylight and continued to rage incessantly during the day and till after dark, ...
— History of Kershaw's Brigade • D. Augustus Dickert

... concerning the names of cultivars is that they should not be in Latin, but in any modern language using the so-called Roman alphabet (i.e. the alphabet in which English, French, German, etc., are written). The reason for this is, of course, to distinguish, at a glance, names of cultivars from names of wild varieties, which are in Latin. In the future, Latin names for cultivars will definitely not be allowed by the Code, but we are faced with the fait accompli of hundreds of existing Latin names ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting • Various

... the ready tact of the educator who knows how to make the existing conditions fulfil his desired end. It is exactly in doing this that the educator may show himself inventive and creative, and that pedagogic talent can distinguish itself. The word "art" is here used in the same way as it is used when we say, the art of war, the art of government, &c.; and rightly, for we are talking about the possibility of the ...
— Pedagogics as a System • Karl Rosenkranz

... lamps contend with the darkness, and lighted fires serve to modify a little the icy temperature of this cellar. Here and there pillars seem to support a roof which is too high and too darkened for the eye of the visitor to distinguish. On the sides are dark and damp recesses, where women assist at the celebration of worship, which is always carried on, according to ancient custom, with much wailing and strange gestures of the body. The book of the law which is ...
— Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period • Paul Lacroix

... said Mary. "He is like the rest of the English. They know not how to distinguish between the spirit and the letter! I understand it all, though I had thought for a moment that in him there was a love for me and mine that would perceive that I could ask nothing that could damage his honour or his good faith. I—who had almost a mother's love and trust ...
— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge

... 'a-tissue,' and in she goes. And finally Mrs. Wilcox reappears, trail, trail, still smelling hay and looking at the flowers. I inflict all this on you because once you said that life is sometimes life and sometimes only a drama, and one must learn to distinguish t'other from which, and up to now I have always put that down as 'Meg's clever nonsense.' But this morning, it really does seem not life but a play, and it did amuse me enormously to watch the W's. Now ...
— Howards End • E. M. Forster

... such distinction in public life, it was perhaps only natural that some of his brothers should be tempted or induced to follow his shining star. Possibly they had no strong inclination to distinguish themselves in public, and were rather pressed to come forward on account of the influential name they bore. Anyway, some of them did appear in various offices and capacities, but without meaning any disrespect to them or any reflection upon their abilities, it may perhaps be ...
— A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham - Papers Reprinted from the "Midland Counties Herald" • Thomas Anderton

... poorly provided with sense-organs, for they cannot be said to see, although they can just distinguish between light and darkness; they are completely deaf, and have only a feeble power of smell; the sense of touch alone is well developed. They can, therefore, learn little about the outside world, and it is surprising that they should exhibit ...
— Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) - Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky • Various

... that both ends of the insect point toward the object upon which it rests. There are still other differences that clearly differentiate the malarial from the common mosquito, but the one given ordinarily serves to distinguish between them. The malarial mosquito is pre-eminently a house-gnat, being scarcely ever seen in the woods or open, but may be found—oftentimes in great numbers—in all malarial localities, lying quietly during the day in dark corners of rooms or stables. ...
— Health on the Farm - A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene • H. F. Harris

... strength of her frenzy, to the farther side of the bed, and writhing out on the opposite side, crept under it and lay still. In a torture of bewilderment and remorse Arthur buried his face in the bedside. Then, helpless to distinguish what he had done from what he had dreamed, he sprang back to the place where Isabel had lain sleeping, ...
— Bylow Hill • George Washington Cable

... rose over the imu—that was all. Within, the people could distinguish the charred remains of their proud goddess. With reverence they covered the imu once more ...
— Legends of Wailuku • Charlotte Hapai

... somewhat heterogeneous and include material, color, shape, finish, ornamentation, method of manufacture, and evidences of use. No single character and no one group of characters can be relied upon to distinguish the different groups. We must depend, therefore, upon an assemblage of characters or upon one character in one place and another in another place. Observing a number of striking differences in two groups of ...
— Ancient art of the province of Chiriqui, Colombia • William Henry Holmes

... professional training, admirably skilled in the science of war, capable of commanding a large army with success, but at the same time not original in plan, not fertile in resource, and lacking the energy, the alertness, the daring, the readiness to take great risks for great ends, which distinguish the military leaders of the world. For a commander of armies, in an offensive campaign, his caution was too largely developed. He possessed in too great a degree what the French term the defensive instinct of the engineer, and was apparently incapable of doing from his own volition ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

... had acquired those of Amati, the outline and character of the varnish and the quality of the tone resembling in some measure the instruments of the Brothers Amati. It is, however, reserved to a few Italian connoisseurs to distinguish them. Those of large pattern, and even of medium size, that have not been injured by unskilful restorers, are scarce, and realise high prices." These remarks, suggested many years since, by so able a connoisseur as Count Cozio, possess a peculiar interest, ...
— The Violin - Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators • George Hart

... presenting himself face to face, not with the nimble air of a servant, but the demeanour of one who feels himself master, and intend to play tyrant. With the moon shining full upon his tawny face, they can distinguish the play of its features. No look of humility, nor sign of subservience there. Instead, a bold, bullying expression, eyes emitting a lurid light, lips set in a satanic smile, between them teeth gleaming like a tiger's! He ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid

... enough. It was not much to look at, quite an insignificant-looking little square tablet of greyish green stone, pierced at one angle, and having on two of its faces faint traces of mysterious letters or symbols, which time had made very difficult to distinguish. ...
— Vice Versa - or A Lesson to Fathers • F. Anstey

... to distinguish between a spirit of reprisal, in what I do, and that of retaliation, which actuates your present violence. What our enemies had robbed us of, as far as they can restore, I take again. Their bread shall feed our famishing country; ...
— The Scottish Chiefs • Miss Jane Porter

... two or three Days we could seldom distinguish, with Certainty, that the Fever was of the malignant kind, though we had often Reason to suspect it. The Pain of the Head, the Fulness and Quickness of the Pulse, and other Symptoms, led us commonly to take away more or less Blood, which the Patient bore easily, and for ...
— An Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British military hospitals in Germany • Donald Monro

... it with the treaty we made with Colombia, and see how vastly more advantageous to us this treaty is than that one was, and there are never lacking in a body of men like the Constitutional Convention a plenty of members who like to distinguish themselves by defending the interests of their country through the advantageous amendment of a treaty. Meanwhile the country will be open to the intrigues of the Colombians, and even to the military attacks upon ...
— Fifty Years of Public Service • Shelby M. Cullom



Words linked to "Distinguish" :   signalize, sex, demarcate, contrast, comprehend, discover, mark, characterize, perceive, know apart, singularize, discriminate, distinction, place, compare, stratify, characterise, resolve, dissociate, individualise, singularise, individualize, sort out, know, label, qualify, class, decouple, sort, classify, assort, single out



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com