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Seem

verb
(past & past part. seemed; pres. part. seeming)
1.
Give a certain impression or have a certain outward aspect.  Synonyms: appear, look.  "This appears to be a very difficult problem" , "This project looks fishy" , "They appeared like people who had not eaten or slept for a long time"
2.
Seem to be true, probable, or apparent.  Synonym: appear.  "It appears that the weather in California is very bad"
3.
Appear to exist.
4.
Appear to one's own mind or opinion.  "I can't seem to learn these Chinese characters"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Seem" Quotes from Famous Books



... It may seem a little surprising that Alf did not make a better resistance when he found himself being carried away on horseback. It is no easy matter for even an Indian to carry a person lying in front of him on a bare-backed broncho when the person is helpless and still. It is a yet less easy matter—if ...
— The Fiery Totem - A Tale of Adventure in the Canadian North-West • Argyll Saxby

... through all the Arteries and Veins of the whole Body, rousing up all humours, the party will sweat, for the Stone opens all the pores of the Body, and drives forth all humours thereby, so that the Patient will seem to have been in the Water, yet will this sweating not make him sicker, for the Stone expels only what is adverse to Nature, preserving what is consonant unto it in its being, therefore the Patient is ...
— Of Natural and Supernatural Things • Basilius Valentinus

... may seem, the twins kept their word, and as a result, when the examinations were held for the term, both came through with markings which were ...
— The Rover Boys Under Canvas - or The Mystery of the Wrecked Submarine • Arthur M. Winfield

... minister's sister. She has been ill with rheumatic fever. She is better now, but doesn't seem to get strong very fast. She ought to go out more, but she isn't able to walk. I really must try and get around tomorrow. She keeps house for her brother at the manse. He isn't ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1902 to 1903 • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... seem to cut much ice with you fellows," commented Fred. "I never thought much of him myself, but you seem to have it in for him especially. I suppose it's because he tried to play that dirty trick on Frank ...
— Army Boys on the Firing Line - or, Holding Back the German Drive • Homer Randall

... unforeseen and heart-rending defeat. Yet he could say honorably: "If any one desires to know the leading and paramount object of my public life, the preservation of this union will furnish him the key." One could wish that the speeches of this fascinating American were more readable today. They seem thin, facile, full of phrases—such adroit phrases as would catch the ear of a listening, applauding audience. Straight, hard thinking was not the road to political preferment in Clay's day. Calhoun had that power, as Lincoln had it. Webster had the capacity for it, although he was ...
— The American Spirit in Literature, - A Chronicle of Great Interpreters, Volume 34 in The - Chronicles Of America Series • Bliss Perry

... permanent occupation just at that time, Joe accompanied us for two or three days, when Colonel Mills suggested that I had better employ him as a scout, so that he could make a little money for himself. Joe didn't seem to care whether I hired him or not; but I put him on the pay-roll, and while he was with us he drew his five dollars a day. It was worth the money to have him along for company's sake, for he was a droll character in his way, and ...
— The Life of Hon. William F. Cody - Known as Buffalo Bill The Famous Hunter, Scout and Guide • William F. Cody

... for sore eyes to see you again," said Mr. Dickerson, closing both of his hands on hers. "Let's see; it's four years ago! How the time flies! I declare, it don't hardly seem a day. Mustn't tell you how you've grown, I suppose? Well, we weren't much more than children, then, anyhow. Set down! I'm at home here. Old stamping-ground of mine, when I'm in New York; our house has its headquarters in New York, now; everything's got ...
— The Coast of Bohemia • William Dean Howells

... standing room only seemed to be the prospect, but the young man did not seem disturbed by it, but settled his broad frame against the door and looked out at the sharp sleet that lashed against the window panes with something like ...
— Mischievous Maid Faynie • Laura Jean Libbey

... the signs. Flocks of birds went by us. I saw him watching, and truly these flights did seem to come from south of west. On the seventh of October he altered course. We sailed southwest. This day there floated by a branch with purple berries, and we saw flying fish. Dolphins played about the ship. The very ...
— 1492 • Mary Johnston

... hard, Mr. Brand?" she said to him one day. "You seem to be under such a nervous strain since you began on that capitol building. Don't you think you ought to take a rest before you really give yourself up to it? I'm afraid you won't do yourself justice if you go on with the work while you ...
— The Fate of Felix Brand • Florence Finch Kelly

... to come to her with their troubles. "They seem to think," she says, "that no one can settle their affairs but this old lady." Rescues of twin-children were also going on all this time. She could not now rush off, as she used to do, when the news arrived, but she sent Jean flying to the spot, and the infants would be seized and the excited people ...
— Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary • W. P. Livingstone

... was of more importance to them at the time, of little Willie. The portraits of Mary and of Shelley, unfinished, and by an amateur, are by no means satisfactory; certainly not giving in Mary's case an idea of the beauty and charm which are constantly referred to by her friends, and which seem to have endured up to the time when, much later, an attack of small-pox altered her appearance. The portrait of Mary, although not artistic, is interesting as painted from life. Her oval face is here given ...
— Mrs. Shelley • Lucy M. Rossetti

... not answer him. He made an effort to calm his feelings, and bravely stepped on the ferry boat with firm foot. Then he sat down, apart from us all, obstinately looking at the large surface of water round us, and struggling to seem ...
— From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan • Helena Pretrovna Blavatsky

... "It does not seem to me a kindness at all," returned Friedhof with frank bluntness. "I would be loth to sail the seas myself in such weather. And I thought you were so grandly married, Froeken Gueldmar,—though I forget your wedded name,—how comes ...
— Thelma • Marie Corelli

... inevitable his adoption, either of natural bent, which is extremely probable, or from a policy in harmony with the wishes of his people, of a view of the monarch's office that to perhaps most Englishmen living under parliamentary rule must seem antiquated, not to say absurd. This attitude apart, the Emperor possesses, as it is hoped has been sufficiently shown, as modern and progressive a spirit as any of his contemporaries. His instant recognition of all useful modern appliances, particularly, ...
— William of Germany • Stanley Shaw

... on behalf of this woman. The life she offered might have psalmic iteration; the dead monotony of it in prospect did, nevertheless, exorcise a devil. Carinthia promised, it might seem to chase and keep the black beast out of him permanently, as she could, he now conceived: for since the day of the marriage with her, the devil inhabiting him had at least been easier, 'up ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... champaign, with less rivers interveined, Then meeting joined their tribute to the sea. Fertile of corn the glebe, of oil, and wine; With herds the pasture thronged, with flocks the hills; Huge cities and high-towered, that well might seem The seats of mightiest monarchs; and so large The prospect was that here and there was room For barren desert, fountainless and dry. To this high mountain-top the Tempter brought Our Saviour, and new train ...
— National Epics • Kate Milner Rabb

... conception of capital goods as always putting enjoyments into the future has crept into economic science because in certain illustrations taken from primitive life they seem to have that effect. We shall see that they do not have it at all in static social industry, and that they have it only in a limited way in dynamic social industry, or that which is carried on by a society ...
— Essentials of Economic Theory - As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public Policy • John Bates Clark

... the States there is ... legislative provision for cases of this sort, [allowing masters to bring and hold slaves therein,] and it would seem that some such provision is necessary in this State, unless we would prohibit citizens of the Slave States from travelling in this State with their families, and unless we would permit such of them as wish to emancipate ...
— The Trial of Theodore Parker • Theodore Parker

... was verra late—maybe twelve o'clock—and I was bolting up and had the cannel in my hand to get me to bed, and a rap came, and when I opened the door who should it be but Mister Paul. He said he wanted a bed, but he seem't to be in the doldrums and noways keen for a crack, so I ax't na questions, but just took him to the little green room over the snug and bid ...
— A Son of Hagar - A Romance of Our Time • Sir Hall Caine

... 'll think o' thee, my Mary Steel, When the lark begins to sing, And a thousan', thousan' joyfu' hearts Are welcoming the spring: When the merle and the blackbird build their nest In the bushy forest tree, And a' things under the sky seem blest, My thoughts shall be ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... boys seem to like 'em more than anything else. It's hard to get fresh fruit out on a cattle ranch, so I keep plenty of the canned stuff on hand. Often a cowboy will eat two cans at once when he comes in from a ride ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Uncle Fred's • Laura Lee Hope

... to seem inquisitive," I said to the landlord, as he was fastening up the bar, which, by the way, was the salle a manger and general sitting-room—"I do not want to seem inquisitive, but your friend Mr. Jaffrey dropped a remark this morning at breakfast ...
— Miss Mehetabel's Son • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... of twelve knots an hour. It could not be allowed to go on! With or without leave the second officer took the command, and put an end to an impossible situation. Our worthy commander only appeared just as we were dropping anchor in the roadstead, when all uncertainty was over, and I seem yet to see the looks that greeted his tardy appearance. Everybody's anxiety had been increased by knowing how he had lost the ship Le Superbe, seventy-four guns, off the Island of Paros, some years before, and under very peculiar circumstances. ...
— Memoirs • Prince De Joinville

... with the sweet assurance in my heart my prayer was heard—packed my trunk and waited patiently. When night came and the men came home, in the place of the expected buggy came a small spring-wagon, and a seat for me. What may seem more remarkable, the change between buggy and spring-wagon was made ten miles away, ...
— The Wonders of Prayer - A Record of Well Authenticated and Wonderful Answers to Prayer • Various

... Transvaal—which, seeing the close tie of relationship which unites a great portion of the population here with the dominant section in that country, is perfectly natural—to a point which gives some ground for the assertion that they seem to care much more for the independence of the Transvaal than for the honour and the interests of the country ...
— Lord Milner's Work in South Africa - From its Commencement in 1897 to the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902 • W. Basil Worsfold

... from Naples to Pompeii is through a succession of densely populated villages that seem to be an integral part of Naples itself, for there is no line of demarcation. Portici, Torre del Greco, Torre dell'Annunziata, and others all blend with each other and with Naples. However familiar one has become with the literature of Pompeii, with both archaeological ...
— Italy, the Magic Land • Lilian Whiting

... all this disjointed talk about Belloc's prose seem but ungracious recognition of Mr. Kilmer's service in reminding us of the poems, let us thank him warmly for his essay. Let us thank him for impressing upon us that there are living to-day men who write as nobly and simply as Belloc on Sussex, ...
— Shandygaff • Christopher Morley

... astonishment that there was another baby camel a little way off. He began to wonder how it was they had not met before, and in his funny, camel-baby talk tried to speak to the newcomer; but Camer did not seem inclined for conversation. Her mother was lying down, and Camer was nestling as closely as possible to her with her odd-shaped little head almost hidden in the shaggy masses of woolly hair which grew ...
— Rataplan • Ellen Velvin

... declamations in support of the positions of Zeno; in which that philosopher's subtleties are adapted to the comprehension of the vulgar, and the events of the times. The second, fourth, and sixth, are respectively directed against Antony, Clodius, and Crassus. They seem to have suffered from time.[224] The sixth is the most eloquent, but the argument of the third ...
— Historical Sketches, Volume I (of 3) • John Henry Newman

... Hastings," cried Hull. "Even if I do exaggerate, as you seem to think, still where's ...
— The Conflict • David Graham Phillips

... sentiments of the queen; and her ministers seem to have acted on the same principles, though perhaps party motives may have helped to influence their conduct. The allies concurred in opposing with all their might any treaty which could not gratify their different views of avarice, ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... his voice sounding hollow and changed; "I ask but one word. My very senses seem to play me false, and mock me with thy outward semblance to one I have so loved. Her name, too, was Marie; her voice soft and thrilling as thine own: and yet, yet, I feel that 'tis but semblance—'tis but mockery—the phantasy of a disordered brain. Speak, in mercy! Say ...
— The Vale of Cedars • Grace Aguilar

... to those two letters addressed to you at Passy before I read your speech in Galignani, &c., and which you do not seem to ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 (of 6) - With his Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... Cleo. You seem grieved, (And therein you are kind) that Caesar first Enjoyed my love, though you deserved it better: I grieve for that, my lord, much more than you; For, had I first been yours, it would have saved My ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume 5 (of 18) - Amboyna; The state of Innocence; Aureng-Zebe; All for Love • John Dryden

... always did seem very fond of you—never happy unless he was at your heels; but he hasn't been hanging about the hospital, you see. It looks like as if that Irishman had given him a crack on the head too, and pitched him down one ...
— Charge! - A Story of Briton and Boer • George Manville Fenn

... see that these portions of the book have been compiled from various sources, and are only from this point of view comprehensible. (21) The prophecies contained in the remaining chapters, where Jeremiah speaks in the first person, seem to be taken from a book written by Baruch, at Jeremiah's dictation. (22) These, however, only comprise (as appears from chap. xxxvi:2) the prophecies revealed to the prophet from the time of Josiah to the fourth year of Jehoiakim, at which period the book begins. (23) The contents ...
— A Theologico-Political Treatise [Part II] • Benedict de Spinoza

... crops out here, consists largely of bituminous shales, that yield mineral oil to the extent of twenty gallons to the ton. But, since the oil springs of the West have been in operation, the usefulness of these shales is gone. The Indians seem to have made large use of the shale, for a friend of mine found a hoe of that material on an island in the Muskoka lakes. Being easily split and worked, it was doubtless very acceptable ...
— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell

... time when the climate did not seem to vary greatly, either hot or cold. The flora was modern enough to give them a homelike feeling. The fauna, modern and Pleistocenic, overlapped. And the surface features were little altered from the twentieth century. The rivers ran along familiar ...
— Project Mastodon • Clifford Donald Simak

... thought, he was at the same time prompt in his decisions. His instructions to juries, and his legal judgments, usually pronounced at considerable length, were marked by that precision of statement, clearness of analysis, and felicity of language, which made them seem like the ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin

... papa's chamber quite out of breath, crying, "O dear papa, only come here! here is a man in the street that has a large cage on his head, with, I dare say, a hundred Canary-birds in it."—"Well, and what of all that?" replied her papa; "why does that seem to rejoice you so much?" Nancy answering, that she should be happy to buy one of them; her papa reminded her, that the bird must be fed, and should it be neglected, even only for a day, it ...
— The Looking-Glass for the Mind - or Intellectual Mirror • M. Berquin

... is exchanged for that of the nurse teaching a child to walk. While, then, the text primarily refers to the experience of the infant nation in the forty years' wanderings, it carries large truths about us all; and sets forth the true meaning and importance of life. There seem to me to be three thoughts here, which I desire to touch on briefly: first, a great thought about God; then an illuminating thought about the true meaning and aspect of life; and lastly a calming thought about the variety of the methods by which God ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... Kunti, and Draupadi, and Subhadra, are all, with their relatives and friends, beholding today exceedingly inauspicious omens. Therefore, O Bhima, go thither with speed where Dhananjaya is. All the points of the compass, O Partha, seem empty to my eyes in consequence of my (unsatisfied) desire to see Dhananjaya and owing also to Satwata." Repeatedly urged by his superior to go, the valiant son of Pandu, viz., Bhimasena, O king, casing his hands in leathern fence, took up his bow. Urged ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... Levi did not seem to notice his scrutiny, leaning forward, now with his palms spread out to the grateful warmth, now rubbing them slowly together. But at last he suddenly whirled his chair around, rasping on the floor, and faced his stepbrother. He thrust his hand into his capacious ...
— Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates • Howard I. Pyle

... he travelled about, all through the world, to find a real one, but everywhere there was something in the way. There were princesses enough, but whether they were real princesses he could not quite make out: there was always something that did not seem quite right. So he came home again, and was quite sad: for he wished so much to have a real princess. One evening a terrible storm came on. It lightened and thundered, the rain streamed down; it was quite fearful! Then there was a knocking at the town ...
— Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know • Various

... character is a strange mixture. The kindest-hearted man in the world, he is a human bloodhound when once the lure of the trail has caught him. He scarcely eats or sleeps when the chase is on, he does not seem to know human weakness nor fatigue, in spite of his frail body. Once put on a case his mind delves and delves until it finds a clue, then something awakes within him, a spirit akin to that which holds the bloodhound nose to trail, and ...
— The Case of the Registered Letter • Augusta Groner

... those weary wanderings in quest of her since he left King Agenor's palace—for the tears that he had shed, on parting with Phoenix, and Cilix, and Thasus—for the heart-breakings that had made the whole world seem dismal to him over ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various

... envious, false, and treacherous. Gan prevailed on Charles to send him as ambassador to Marsilius, to arrange the tribute. He embraced Orlando over and over again at taking leave, using such pains to seem loving and sincere, that his hypocrisy was manifest to every one but the old monarch. He fastened with equal tenderness on Oliver, who smiled contemptuously in his face, and thought to himself, "You may ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch

... ah, pleasing shade! Ah, fields belov'd in vain! Where once my careless childhood stray'd, A stranger yet to pain! I feel the gales that from ye blow 15 A momentary bliss bestow, As, waving fresh their gladsome wing, My weary soul they seem to soothe, And, redolent of joy and youth, To breathe a ...
— Select Poems of Thomas Gray • Thomas Gray

... not look at them; for if Thou do, it will seem at last to thee that we should all be sent to the quarries," said Tutmosis, smiling. "Remember that the nomarchs and officials are the shepherds of thy flock. If one of them takes a measure of milk for himself, or kills a little sheep, of course Thou wilt not kill him or drive the ...
— The Pharaoh and the Priest - An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt • Boleslaw Prus

... blind subjection to a bigoted priesthood which distinguishes the other Christian populations, would seem to indicate a certain independence of spirit, but unhappily the accompanying symptoms are not so encouraging. With contempt for its ministers, has come disregard for the ordinances of the Church, the services of which are but scantily attended. Yet notwithstanding ...
— Herzegovina - Or, Omer Pacha and the Christian Rebels • George Arbuthnot

... which gives the idea of permanence, and comes under the general definition of respectability. These primitive statesmen, therefore,—Bradstreet, Endicott, Dudley, Bellingham, and their compeers,—who were elevated to power by the early choice of the people, seem to have been not often brilliant, but distinguished by a ponderous sobriety, rather than activity of intellect. They had fortitude and self-reliance, and, in time of difficulty or peril, stood up ...
— The Scarlet Letter • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... it often enough," pursued Jim; "but when all is said, how can a man prevent a thing like that? I might as well try to shut my eyes to the sun when it is shining straight on me. Why, everybody else seems dull and lifeless when I look at her—and I seem such a brute myself that I hardly dare touch her hand. All I ask is to be her servant until ...
— The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields • Ellen Glasgow

... shops, of which, in the ancient town which was Jeanne's home, there were many. And at last one day they told Marcelline what it was they were so anxious to find. She shook her head. There was no such toy in this country, she said, but she did not laugh at them, or seem to think them silly. And she advised them to be content with the prettiest balls they could get, which were of nice smooth buff-coloured leather, very well made, and neither too soft nor too hard. And in the sunlight, said Jeanne, they ...
— The Tapestry Room - A Child's Romance • Mrs. Molesworth

... a guarantee of security, if not of material advantage, did not at the first glance seem more eligible. "Besides that she was the issue of a double bastardy, of a pope on her father's side, of a natural daughter of Charles V. on her mother's side, she was the daughter of a petty duke of Parma and a thoroughly Austrian mother, ...
— Political Women, Vol. 2 (of 2) • Sutherland Menzies

... 1st pers. sing. Pres. Indic. act., lexicon form: in "liquid" verbs (not derivatives in άνω, which is merely strengthened for άω) this is a liquid; in "pure" verbs it is absent, so that the root appears to end in a vowel, etc. Very many verbs seem to be anomalous in some of their forms in consequence of deriving these from an obsolete kindred root. The lexicon gives most of ...
— Greek in a Nutshell • James Strong

... seem to be all right. But my leg isn't. I shouldn't wonder but what I'll have to limp more or less for the ...
— The Rover Boys on the Ocean • Arthur M. Winfield (Edward Stratemeyer)

... 'beachcombers,' for there is nothing on the beach for them to comb. They live on the charity of the traders and natives. If they were sailor-men they could perhaps get fifteen dollars a month on the schooners. Why they come here is a mystery.... Most of them seem to be clerks or school-teachers. One is a violin teacher. Another young fellow brought out a typewriting machine; he is now yardman at a Suva hotel. A third is a married man with two young children. He is a French polisher, wife a milliner. They came ...
— The Call Of The South - 1908 • Louis Becke

... "You gentlemen seem determined between you to conduct the whole case your own way. I was about to dismiss with thanks the neighboring landholders who have assisted me to the best ...
— Thurston of Orchard Valley • Harold Bindloss

... incongruous spectacle. But the incongruity of it is illumining. It reveals Alexander's simple attitude towards the sins of the flesh, and shows how, in common with most churchmen of his day, he found no conscientious difficulty in combining fervid devotion with perfervid licence. Whatever it may seem by ours, by his lights—by the light of the examples about him from his youth, by the light of the precedents afforded him by his predecessors in St. Peter's Chair—his conduct was a normal enough affair, which can have afforded him little with ...
— The Life of Cesare Borgia • Raphael Sabatini

... veil conceal'd, the world seem'd dead; The clouds soon closed around me, as a tomb, And I was left ...
— The Poems of Goethe • Goethe

... in his speech favoring the corruption of certain tribunes, "that the veto of one tribune would be sufficient to defeat all the others."[11] This is contrary to the statement of Dionysius[12] and would seem improbable, for, if the opposition of one tribune was sufficient, the patricians would not have deemed it necessary to purchase four. That would be contrary ...
— Public Lands and Agrarian Laws of the Roman Republic • Andrew Stephenson

... And remember what it is that I say; with your grief I do sympathise, but not with any outward expression of it;—not with melancholy looks, and a sad voice, and an unhappy gait. A man should always be able to drink his wine and seem to enjoy it. If he can't, he is so much less of a man than he would be otherwise,—not so much more, as some people seem to think. Now get yourself dressed, my dear fellow, and come down to dinner as though nothing had ...
— The Small House at Allington • Anthony Trollope

... "They seem to be puttin' most all the Americans in China out of circulation!" said the little fellow. "Wonder if that old gear-face thinks he can guard us an' sleep, too? Say, you watch your chance, Ned, an' I'll roll over and geezle him an' you get out of the house. Roll out, tumble ...
— Boy Scouts on Motorcycles - With the Flying Squadron • G. Harvey Ralphson

... seem clear that the truce had expired, and that the English king was bound to no treaty of peace. His son's capture was immediately followed by the death of King Robert III, who sank, broken-hearted, into the ...
— An Outline of the Relations between England and Scotland (500-1707) • Robert S. Rait

... more machinery or officers than might be necessary to hold it together and keep it in proper working order. After some discussion, it was agreed first to form a general committee, with a chairman, whose business it should be to call meetings when necessity should seem to require it, and to preside at the same; and a treasurer to take charge of the funds; and second, to appoint out of this general committee, an acting committee of four persons, who should have the responsibility of attending to every case that might require their aid, as well as ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still

... 3 page 142.) has observed that the lower part of the trachea of the domestic goose is sometimes flattened, and that a ring of white feathers sometimes surrounds the base of the beak. These characters seem at first sight good indications of a cross at some former period with the white-fronted goose (A. albifrons); but the white ring is variable in this latter species, and we must not overlook the law of analogous ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - Volume I • Charles Darwin

... amongst the males seems to be that the strongest and most active animal should propagate the species, which should thence become improved. Another great want consists in the means of procuring food, which has diversified the forms of all species of animals.... All which seem to have been gradually produced during many generations by the perpetual endeavour of the creatures to supply the want of food, and to have been delivered to their posterity with constant improvement of them for the purpose required.... ...
— Life of Charles Darwin • G. T. (George Thomas) Bettany

... which they meant to set fire in the night, and then assault him with all their forces. Alvarado immediately called his troops to arms, and marched out into the open country, telling the chiefs that he did so for the purpose of procuring grass for his horses. They did not seem pleased with this change; and as soon as Alvarado was completely clear of the town, he seized the principal cacique, whom he reproached for his treachery, and ordered to be burnt alive. Father Olmedo obtained a respite of this sentence, with permission to endeavour to convert the condemned cacique ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr

... the sky-pilot over at El Paso," volunteered Hopalong, winking at Red. "He used to amble down th' aisle afore the lights was lit so's he could get a front seat. That was all hunky for a while, but every time he'd go out to irrigate, that female organ-wrastler would seem to call th' music off for his special benefit. So in a month he'd sneak in an' freeze to a chair by th' door, an' after a while he'd shy like blazes every time he got within eye range ...
— Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up - Bar-20 • Clarence Edward Mulford

... to appoint special Justices in the Room of those taken off as aforesaid,2 in order for the Tryal of the said Prisoners, or otherwise that your Honor wd take such Steps to prevent the Delay of Justice at this important Crisis as in your Wisdom shall seem meet. ...
— The Writings of Samuel Adams, volume II (1770 - 1773) - collected and edited by Harry Alonso Cushing • Samuel Adams

... had to be approved by the President of the Republic, and the result was not officially communicated till the 19th. It would seem that Reeve did not receive it till his arrival in Paris, and on the next day, May 25th, ...
— Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. - In Two Volumes. VOL. II. • John Knox Laughton

... power about here, somehow," said Frank. "There ought to be some way of getting at that wretched beast, without all this nonsense. Here we are,—I don't know how many of us, but the whole population of a town, at any rate, against one,—and what's worse, we don't seem to make any impression." ...
— Among the Brigands • James de Mille

... Delobelle with his "Il faut lutter pour l'art," or for Valmajour with his eternal refrain about the nightingale, or for the poet in Jack with his "mots cruels," now that we have learned from Vingt Ans de ma Vie litteraire that these characters were taken directly from life. To us they seem to have suddenly lost all their vitality, all the few qualities they ever possessed. The only real people are the people who never existed, and if a novelist is base enough to go to life for his personages he should at least pretend that they are creations, and ...
— Intentions • Oscar Wilde

... automobile. A pretty young woman rides in it, and some fine day she won't. I never did like those freak acts. But the public does," sighed the old circus man. "The really difficult feats, that require years of practice, patrons don't seem to give a rap for. But let somebody do a stunt in which he is in danger of suddenly ending his life, then you'll see the people howl with delight. I sometimes think they would be half tickled to death to see some of us break our necks. There's ...
— The Circus Boys Across The Continent • Edgar B. P. Darlington

... much penetration," said Mary, "to discover the Doctor's master-passion; love of ease and self-indulgence seem to be the pre-dominant features of his mind; and he looks as if, when he sat in an arm-chair, with his toes on the fender and his hands crossed, he would not have an idea beyond 'I wonder what we shall have ...
— Marriage • Susan Edmonstone Ferrier

... love. In a man strong passion may overcome the aversion to a more or less enduring union with a woman of a lower race, just as extreme hunger may urge him to eat what his palate would normally reject; but women seem to be proof against this temptation to stoop: in mixed marriages it is nearly always the man who belongs to the superior race. At first thought it might seem as if this racial aversion could not do much to retard the growth of free choice and love, since in early times, when facilities ...
— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck

... no complete translation of Seneca has been published in England, though Sir Roger L'Estrange wrote paraphrases of several Dialogues, which seem to have been enormously popular, running through more than sixteen editions. I think we may conjecture that Shakespeare had seen Lodge's translation, from several allusions to philosophy, to that impossible conception "the wise man," and especially from a passage ...
— L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca

... we shall go much now," she replied; "most of my friends have left. It's all different now up at the 'Manshun,' with a young missus and a new housekeeper; though they seem pleased enough about it in the village; a well-spoken, nice-looking young lady they says she is, but I shan't go there no more. They don't know me and I don't know them, and there we'll ...
— The Ffolliots of Redmarley • L. Allen Harker

... we have four hundred souls to the square mile, like England and Flanders. Meanwhile, the exporting of Iowa and California in the shape of wheat is going on at what must be esteemed a profitable rate; for our farmers, as a class, do not seem to be losing ground. Their glebes have risen in value from thirty-two hundred millions in 1850 to sixty-six hundred ten years later, and ninety-three hundred in 1870. This has been accompanied by a ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - February, 1876, Vol. XVII, No. 98. • Various

... you are!" she cried, turning away her face that he might not see her brimming eyes. "You are on the side of the people in the training-school—at least you seem almost to be! What I insist on is, that to explain such verses as this: 'Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women?' by the note: 'The Church professeth her faith,' is ...
— Jude the Obscure • Thomas Hardy

... meant war with the object of establishing Boer supremacy. The Cabinet, therefore, has knowingly and deliberately taken upon itself the responsibility for whatever risks are now run. In this deliberate decision of the Cabinet lies the best ground for hoping that the risks are not so great as they seem. ...
— Lessons of the War • Spenser Wilkinson

... in Ireland appeared to be confined to two circumstances, the Presbyterian religion, and the linen manufacture. I heard of very few emigrants except among manufacturers of that persuasion. The Catholics never went; they seem not only tied to the country, but almost to the parish in which their ancestors lived. As to the emigration in the north it was an error in England to suppose it a novelty which arose with the increase in rents. The contrary was the fact; it had subsisted perhaps forty ...
— A Tour in Ireland - 1776-1779 • Arthur Young

... officer would seem familiar," she argued within herself; "just as if I had seen him ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... the soil-pipe and the other the vent-pipe, indicating the location of a bath-room below (see Fig. 61). In a single house, however, and particularly in view of experiments made recently on the subject of trap siphonage, these trap-vents seem hardly necessary. They were formerly insisted upon because of the feeling that by the passage of a large amount of water down the soil-pipe, sufficient suction might be induced to draw out the water from some small trap on the way, thereby opening a passage ...
— Rural Hygiene • Henry N. Ogden

... town named Chapoltepec, along which the aqueduct, or pipes, for supplying Mexico with fresh water was carried; but this appears to have been too narrow for allowing any passage, at least the Spaniards do not seem to have availed themselves of it, in their long and arduous endeavours to force their way into Mexico. Near the south-west angle of the salt lake of Mexico, it communicated by a narrow neck or strait with the fresh water lake ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr

... with the administration of justice by the courts. Heike got a $25,000 salary and has escaped his imprisonment, but what about the six $18 a week checkers, who were sent to jail, one of them a man of more than sixty? It is cases like this that create discontent and anarchy. They make it seem plain that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor man, and I ...
— Theodore Roosevelt - An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt

... says. Mabel is in a state of complete nervous prostration caused by the shock of this calamity. I wish you would come to us at once. I fear for my dear child's reason unless you prove able to calm and quiet her through this ordeal. Hasten then, my dear son; every moment before you arrive will seem an age of sorrow and ...
— An Ambitious Man • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... But Alaire did not seem to hear him. She was staring out into the night again. "What a failure I must be!" she murmured, finally. "I suppose I should have seen this coming, but—I didn't. And in his house, too! This dress is his, and these jewels—everything!" She ...
— Heart of the Sunset • Rex Beach

... crimes and misdemeanors. Mr. Pulteney moved, That this affair might be left to the consideration of a select committee. Sir William Wyndham asserted, That in proceeding by way of impeachment upon reports from above, they would make a dangerous precedent; and seem to give up the most valuable of their privileges, the inquest after state criminals. The question being put, it was carried for the impeachment. The earl was accordingly impeached at the bar of the upper house; a committee was ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... Gurley, his wife rose and left the room; when Claud, unexpectedly finding himself alone with his fair companion, instead of entering into the easy conversation with her which the dictates of common gallantry would seem to require, soon began to manifest signs of constraint and embarrassment, which did not escape the eye of the young lady, and which caused her no little surprise and perplexity. She knew nothing of what ...
— Gaut Gurley • D. P. Thompson

... must seem, the pope certainly bound himself by this engagement: and who can tell with what intention? To believe him sincere and to believe him false seems equally impossible. If he was persuaded that Henry's cause was good, why did he in the following year pronounce finally for Catherine? ...
— History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II. • James Anthony Froude

... Revolution. The agencies of suggestion in such cases make possible, provided that they are only able to remove the feeling of hopelessness, results which a moment before are neither to be anticipated nor expected. Where will and the sense of duty alone seem powerless, the mechanisms of suggestion ...
— Introduction to the Science of Sociology • Robert E. Park

... stolen his certificates, but he indignantly repels the insinuation. You find a discrepancy, however, in the name and press him still further, whereupon he retires from his first position to the extent of admitting that the papers, though rightfully his, were earned by his father. He does not seem to think this detracts much from their value. Others will come, with less pronounced characteristics, and, therefore, more perplexing. The Madrassee will be there, with his spherical turban and his wonderful command of ...
— Behind the Bungalow • EHA

... left the mechanical toy, On the chair is her Teddy Bear fine; The things that I thought she would really enjoy Don't seem to be quite in her line. There's the flaxen-haired doll that is lovely to see And really expensively dressed, Left alone, all uncared for, and strange though it be, She likes her rag ...
— Just Folks • Edgar A. Guest

... kept a respectful silence, waiting for his opinion. When he found an interesting case he sometimes delivered a little lecture on it, in a quiet monotonous tone that did not disturb the other patients. But to-day he did not seem inclined to talk. ...
— Whosoever Shall Offend • F. Marion Crawford

... God has granted both to be and to seem good, he is truly happy and truly renowned. And we must have a great care for reputation, as a matter of great importance and of much value, for our social and bodily life. [By reputation Philo means reputation of being loyal Jews. He is ...
— Philo-Judaeus of Alexandria • Norman Bentwich

... but Aliena and Ganymede went and folded their flocks, and taking up their hooks, their bags, and their bottles, hied homeward. By the way Aliena, to make the time seem short, began to ...
— Rosalynde - or, Euphues' Golden Legacy • Thomas Lodge

... Congress." If, as is also declared in the preamble, "said State government can only be restored to its former political relations in the Union by the consent of the lawmaking power of the United States," it would really seem to follow that the joint resolution which at this late day has received the sanction of Congress should have been passed, approved, and placed on the statute books before any amendment to the Constitution was submitted to the legislature of Tennessee for ratification. Otherwise ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 2 (of 2) of Volume 6: Andrew Johnson • James D. Richardson

... not come out until dinner-time, when she made an effort to seem composed, but Edith saw her hand tremble every time it was lifted. She drank three glasses of wine during the meal. After dinner she went to her own apartment immediately, and did not come ...
— Cast Adrift • T. S. Arthur

... been written by an amorist, would seem either base or priggish. Coming from Shelley, it is a miracle of what can only ...
— The Art of Letters • Robert Lynd

... been only of such adventures as might befall a soldier upon any enterprise, but now a strange thing happened. Until that moment I had never seen the Chateau Cartillon, still there was not a corner or a passage which did not seem well known to me. My feet fell into paths they seemed no strangers to. I seemed to know intuitively what each building was for, and even imagined most vividly scenes which had transpired there. The whole place had the most intense personal ...
— The Black Wolf's Breed - A Story of France in the Old World and the New, happening - in the Reign of Louis XIV • Harris Dickson



Words linked to "Seem" :   leap out, be, look, gleam, stand out, radiate, lift, come across, beam, jump, pass off, appear, rise, make, sound, glint, feel, shine, glisten, stick out, jump out, glitter, rear, glow, loom, cut



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