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Soaking   /sˈoʊkɪŋ/   Listen
Soaking

noun
1.
The process of becoming softened and saturated as a consequence of being immersed in water (or other liquid).  Synonyms: soak, soakage.
2.
The act of making something completely wet.  Synonyms: drenching, souse, sousing.
3.
Washing something by allowing it to soak.  Synonym: soak.



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"Soaking" Quotes from Famous Books



... but an idle god, I guess, Since all the fair midsummer of my dreams He loiters listlessly by woody streams, Soaking the lush glooms up with laziness; Or drowsing while the maiden-winds caress Him prankishly, and powder him with gleams Of sifted sunshine. And he ever seems Drugged with a joy unutterable— unless His low pipes whistle hints of it far out Across the ripples to the dragon-fly That like a wind-born ...
— Afterwhiles • James Whitcomb Riley

... misunderstood by her mother, who had long since been made hopelessly dull by the suffocating life she led and by pain from her feet, which never left her at ease for a moment except when she had them soaking in cold water. Mrs. Gower had been born with ordinary feet, neither ugly nor pretty and entirely fit for the uses for which nature intended feet. She had spoiled them by wearing shoes to make them look smaller and slimmer than they were. In steady weather she was plaintive; in ...
— The Price She Paid • David Graham Phillips

... God, who held all these things in His hand. And over there in Sark was Nance, the very thought of whom was like a coal of fire in his heart, which all the gales that ever blew, and all the soddened soaking of ceaseless rain from above and ceaseless spray from below, ...
— A Maid of the Silver Sea • John Oxenham

... case is good enough to use again, soak it for several hours in a solution of baking soda in water to neutralize any acid which may have been spilled on it, or which may be spilled on it later. After soaking the case, rinse it in water, and allow it to dry thoroughly. Then paint the case carefully with ...
— The Automobile Storage Battery - Its Care And Repair • O. A. Witte

... heavily shelled with shrapnel, and we suffered a few casualties. By night time everything was covered with snow, but what really put the lid on was a sudden blizzard about 2 A.M. with ever so many degrees of frost. Everything one had on was of course soaking wet and covered with mud, and this was now frozen stiff by the frost. Most of the rifles were out of action, and even the water in the machine guns froze. However, daylight put new heart in us, and we made good progress in improving the trenches, getting rifles once ...
— The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry - and 14th (F. & F. Yeo.) Battn. R.H. 1914-1919 • D. D. Ogilvie

... necessary to lay it concavity uppermost, and to surround it with a wall of board like the last, brushing over the concavity, and indeed the whole of the tablet surrounding it, with soft soap and water, or oil, or thin pipe-clay and water; or, if the mould has been baked dry, soaking it in water alone will be sufficient to prevent the copy sticking. Recollect that the flatter the tablet—surrounding the cavity left by the fish—is made, the better will be ...
— Practical Taxidermy • Montagu Browne

... been picked up even before armed sailors on the Volhynia descended to their empty state-rooms and took possession of what luggage could be discovered, and of the three bombs with their charred wicks still soaking on the sopping bed. ...
— The Dark Star • Robert W. Chambers

... of silver-buckle garters meant for her. But most of them come out right, and several of them was so surprised at getting presents in New York that they bust out crying. Major Calhoun's whiskers was soaking wet with tears when he got a bottle of old ...
— Colonel Crockett's Co-operative Christmas • Rupert Hughes

... technical language that the rainfall of a place was 153 inches for a certain year? Such a statement means simply that if all the rain which fell on any level piece of ground in that place could be collected—none being lost by drying up, none running off the soil and none soaking into it—then at the end of the year it would form a layer covering that piece of ground to the uniform depth of 12 feet 9 inches! An inch of rain signifies 114 tons, or 27,000 ...
— The Confessions of a Beachcomber • E J Banfield

... impressed with his companion as I had been with mine; and for the next two or three days we could talk of little but the two charming girls who had burst in upon us so unexpectedly on the afternoon of that, for us, lucky thunder-storm, reiterating our hopes that the soaking had done them no harm, and wondering whether we should ever be favoured with another meeting, and, if so, when. And, indeed, trivial as the incident may seem, it exercised an important and beneficial ...
— The Rover's Secret - A Tale of the Pirate Cays and Lagoons of Cuba • Harry Collingwood

... dancing upon the uneven cobbles with a kind of excited frenzy, and thickening the air with a curtain of mist. He climbed the High Street, his head down, feeling a physical satisfaction in the fierce soaking that the storm was giving him. The town was shining and deserted. Not a soul about. No sound except the hissing, sneering, chattering whisper of the deluge. He went up to his room and changed, putting on a dinner jacket, and came down to his father's study. It was too late for dinner, ...
— The Cathedral • Hugh Walpole

... a small daily allowance of calavances, which not being sufficient to keep us alive, we had recourse to the remainder of our smoked congers which had been neglected for some months, and had been soaking and rotting in the bilge-water, so that they were now as disgusting food as could be. Under these calamitous circumstances, we again met the Success near port Angels, in lat. 15 deg. 50' N. long. 96 deg. 25' W. Having exchanged signals, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... the next day, the rain poured down upon us, not in drops but in streams. The wind, at the same time, was variable and squally, which obliged the people to attend the decks, so that few in the ships escaped a good soaking. We, however, benefited by it, as it gave us an opportunity of filling all our empty water-casks. This heavy rain at last brought on a dead calm, which continued twenty-four hours, when it was succeeded by a breeze from ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr

... until the number mounted up to twenty. The spot where they were placed was close to the bank of the river and, as all were suffering severely from thirst, Stanley asked and obtained permission from the guard to fetch some water. He first knelt down and took a long drink; then he bathed his head and, soaking his handkerchief with water, made it into a pad, placed it on the wound, and put his cap on over it. Then he filled a flask that he carried, and joined his companions. These were permitted to go down, one by one, to the river to ...
— On the Irrawaddy - A Story of the First Burmese War • G. A. Henty

... Trooper Bear (once the Honourable MacMahon FitzUrse), kindliest, weakest, gentlest of gentlemen, had lurched one bitter soaking night (or early morning) into the barrack-room, singing ...
— Snake and Sword - A Novel • Percival Christopher Wren

... were not apt soon to forget that night. They were compelled to remain under the shelf of rock, because outside everything was soaking wet; and besides, the night wind blew unusually cold for that time of year. Without a fire to cheer them it would have been unbearable to try to stay in ...
— The Outdoor Chums at Cabin Point - or The Golden Cup Mystery • Quincy Allen

... Bunny! just see what you have done," exclaimed Mervyn, beginning to cry as he felt the cold water soaking in through his stockings and shoes. "Oh, dear! what ...
— Naughty Miss Bunny - A Story for Little Children • Clara Mulholland

... beyond and lost itself in the broad highway of light which shimmered from the western sky. Presently she turned aside from the road and, scrambling through a gap in a stone wall, plunged into the cool shadows of the woods. A heavy rain had fallen during the night, soaking the thirsty earth, and the growing green things were all responsively alive and vivid once again, while the clean, pleasant smell of damp soil ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler

... got nothing as tame or ordinary as that. He started with a sprained j'int from the cruise, but he's going to have something far worse, if I don't miss my guess. Clemmie's been soaking his ankle in red pepper." He chuckled quietly as he helped Elizabeth into ...
— Captain Pott's Minister • Francis L. Cooper

... of torrential rain, when she was a girl living in her father's house in Cheshire, she and her sister saw a carriage and pair coming through the park towards the house. The coachman and footman on the box were soaking wet, and kept their heads down to avoid the sting of the rain in their eyes. The horses were streaming with rain and the carriage might ...
— Painted Windows - Studies in Religious Personality • Harold Begbie

... clucked at the sight of the pool of water he was creating in her foyer. "Well, come inside, for heaven's sake. You're soaking!" ...
— Dream Town • Henry Slesar

... uniforms were very striking. Every type was represented—the smart French officer, the Zouave, the Turco, and the Arab, and one could not help wondering what the Senegalese and the Algerians thought of this soaking rain, or how they would fare in the ...
— A Surgeon in Belgium • Henry Sessions Souttar

... most southern edge of that vast desolation, but already tamaracks appeared in the beauty of their burnt gold; little pools glimmered here and there; patches of amber sphagnum and crimson pitcher-plants became frequent; and once or twice Kloon's big boots broke through the crust of fallen leaves, soaking him to ...
— The Flaming Jewel • Robert W. Chambers

... or even eight yards of a blanket are required. That is to be folded and rolled up so that a good quantity of boiling water may be poured first into one end of it and then into the other. It has to be squeezed and kneaded till the heated water and steam are fairly soaking the inside of the blanket. When this is opened up, it is far too hot to put to the skin, but a double flannel or strong towel may be put on first, so that the heat shall go gradually through to the body, and ...
— Papers on Health • John Kirk

... pastry with the shortening before pouring in the custard prevents the moisture from soaking into the crust. ...
— Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book - Numerous New Recipes Based on Present Economic Conditions • Mary A. Wilson

... lens. Then he filled a drinking-glass with warm boiled water and added a few pinches of table salt. With a piece of sterilised gauze from Doctor Putnam's medicine-chest, he carefully washed off a few portions of the coat and set the glass and the gauze soaking in it aside. Then he returned the coat to the closet where he had found it. Next, as silently, he stole into Junior's room and repeated the process with his hunting-jacket, using another glass and ...
— The Silent Bullet • Arthur B. Reeve

... of shallow furrows is ploughed between the rows of trees, and the water is allowed to flow down these until the soil is thoroughly soaked. In alfalfa fields the water is often turned upon the upper end and permitted to work its way across until it reaches the lower edge, soaking the ground as it goes. The slopes must in every case be so gentle that the current will not be strong enough to ...
— The Western United States - A Geographical Reader • Harold Wellman Fairbanks

... the story of these wrongs all around the land. While she was in Washington, eighteen half sick soldiers died at the camp in one night, from cold and starvation. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," and the blood of these soaking into the soil where dwelt patriotic, warm-souled men and women, presently produced a noble growth and fruitage of charity, and sacrifice, and ...
— Woman's Work in the Civil War - A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience • Linus Pierpont Brockett

... was weary—weary from exertion and disappointment and foreboding. Her good scout enterprise was suddenly changed into an act of sneaking disobedience. The physical exhaustion which follows nervous strain was upon her now and her little feet lagged in their soaking shoes and once or ...
— Pee-wee Harris • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... mizzen, and in the wind this was a terrible job. It nearly killed us. At eight o'clock to-night we could not see five feet ahead of us. It was black as hell, and the schooner rolled fearfully. The deck-load then shifted eight inches to starboard. This made a list that frightened us. We were all soaking wet now for days. The after-house separated from the main-deck, and the water became six feet deep in ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien

... of sunny shores twice. Soaking in southern seas once. India once. Goodness knows where in Persia once. Musk-rat-land once. And once, wherever the cow came from. Hold your carpet up to the light, and with cautious tenderness, ...
— The Phoenix and the Carpet • E. Nesbit

... tell you what, Hugh, he's hoping to hide his face, so if he's discovered prowling around in here no one can say positively that they recognized him. Leon is up to all those sly tricks. He gets ideas like that out of the stories he's so fond of soaking in." ...
— The Chums of Scranton High on the Cinder Path • Donald Ferguson

... sat dumbly, shivering. Far in the distance, a beast roared against the heavy night, and a light rain began to fall. They sat naked, the rain soaking their skin and hair. Then one of them grunted, and moved into the dry darkness of the cave. Deep within him some instinct spoke, warning him to fear the ...
— The Link • Alan Edward Nourse

... went back to the house, her spirits sinking as the warm air smote her, the odour of close rooms, and of the soaking little garments in the kitchen tub. Wallace had come in, had flung himself across his bed, ...
— Martie the Unconquered • Kathleen Norris

... the blackness. She got the feeling of direction. The blackness seemed to be soaking behind her eyes. She held the speed throttle steady in fingers slippery with sweat, and that was the only way she could tell they were still ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz

... small ball of amalgam, placed it in a double fold of new fine grained calico, and after soaking in hot water put it under a powerful press. The weight of the ball before pressing was 1583 gr. From this 383 gr. of mercury was expressed and five-eighths of a grain of gold was retorted from this expressed mercury. The ...
— Getting Gold • J. C. F. Johnson

... thing we were near that tree, or we should have been soaking wet. There isn't another one like ...
— The Little Brown Hen Hears the Song of the Nightingale & The Golden Harvest • Jasmine Stone Van Dresser

... country the appearance of a large puddle. We were literally walking in water; and by stooping down, almost any where as we went along, could have dipped a pint pot half full. It was dreadful work to travel thus in the water, and with the wet from the long brush soaking our clothes for so many hours; but there was no help for it, as we could not find a blade of grass for our horses, to enable us to halt sooner. The surface of the whole country was stony and barren in the extreme. A mile from our camp, we passed a small salt lake on our left; and at fifteen ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre

... broad, and nearly three deep: They were made of the bark of trees, sewn together, either with the sinews of some beast, or thongs cut out of a hide. Some kind of rush was laid into the seams, and the outside was smeared with a resin or gum, which prevented the water from soaking into the bark. Fifteen slender branches, bent into an arch, were sewed transversely to the bottom and sides, and some straight pieces were placed across the top, from gunwale to gunwale, and securely lashed at each end: Upon ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr

... at one time than at another, that I may well say she was then going at her best speed, for there is quality as well as rate in motion. The trees were all well clothed, most of them in their very best. Their garments were soaking up the light and the heat, and the wind was going about among them, telling now one and now another, that all was well, and getting through an immense amount of comfort-work in a single minute. It said a word or two to myself as often ...
— A Rough Shaking • George MacDonald

... the two young men returned, soaking with wet and covered with mud, but with light hearts, for they had found their companions in the enjoyment of perfect health and in the best spirits. They brought back with them a missive, couched ...
— Willis the Pilot • Paul Adrien

... by filling the pores with fluid is seen by soaking white paper in oil; which from an opake body becomes very transparent, and accounts for a curious atmospheric phenomenon; when there exists a dry mist in a morning so as to render distant objects less distinct, it is a sign of a dry day; when distant objects ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... moonlight was left to him. He gave the horse his head and the animal picked his way among the loose rocks and scrub timber that capped the ridge. When darkness overtook him he dismounted, unsaddled, and groped about for firewood. Despite its recent soaking the resinous bull pine flared up at the touch of a match, and with his back to a rock-wall, the cowboy sat and watched the little flames shoot upward. Once more he felt for his "makings" and with infinite pains dried ...
— The Texan - A Story of the Cattle Country • James B. Hendryx

... from the office a small plate of glass, and a photographic dish in which a piece of thin notepaper was soaking in water. ...
— John Thorndyke's Cases • R. Austin Freeman

... went back to his duty—all too soon for his strength. The dreadful weather continued. Day after day he returned soaking from some distant station to the damp and discomfort of the house, and the ill-cooked, unappetising food, which he could hardly swallow. And to all this was added great anxiety about the future ...
— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand

... fumes suffocate us? They must be just awful inside the mountain. This is a nice pickle for me to get into! If I stay out here I'm in danger of being drowned, or swept away by a landslide; if I go inside there's all the chance in the world that I'll be soaking in poisonous sulphur gas till I keel over. I'm up against it ...
— The Saddle Boys of the Rockies - Lost on Thunder Mountain • James Carson

... if that's any worse than sitting to a drunken beast in a studio. You haven't been sober for three weeks. You've been soaking the whole time; and yet you pretend you're better ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling

... was throwing the wrapping of the fourth and last package into the fire the gendarmes, accompanied by the commissary of police, seized that incriminating article, which Denise let them take without manifesting the least emotion. It was a handkerchief, on which, in spite of its soaking in the river, traces of blood could still be seen. When questioned as to what she was doing there, Denise said she was taking the stolen gold from the river according to her brother's instructions. ...
— The Village Rector • Honore de Balzac

... said courteously. A refusal was at Maitland's lips when the door was opened by an old lady in a white frilled cap and without being able to explain how it came about he found himself in the quaintly furnished but delightfully cosy living-room, soaking in the comfort of a great ...
— To Him That Hath - A Novel Of The West Of Today • Ralph Connor

... "You are soaking wet," observed Whispering Smith. "Across the river?" he echoed. "Well, hardly, my dear Miss Dunning! Every bridge is out down the valley except the railroad bridge and there are a few things I don't tackle; one is the Crawling ...
— Whispering Smith • Frank H. Spearman

... and walls, taking strange shapes, like pillars and columns that came from a dim nowhere and rushed past him into the gray void behind. He was drenched ere he could have turned in his saddle; his eyes were filled with rain, it ran dripping from his soaking hat brim and coursed down his arms and chest and back. For a moment even Scamp, experienced cow pony that he was, plunged and snorted loudly, until Roy's voice shouted encouragement. Then he raced forward again. But almost at once his gait shortened; ...
— The New Boy at Hilltop • Ralph Henry Barbour

... another great difficulty: the season obliging all camps to break up, the poor Hanoverians have been forced to continue soaking in theirs. The county magistrates have been advised that they are not obliged by law to billet foreigners on public-houses, and have refused. Transports were yesterday ordered to carry away the Hanoverians! There are eight thousand men taken from America; for I am sure we can ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume I • Horace Walpole

... the African coast, at the beginning of the rainy season, are of short duration, so that our anxiety quickly left us to the enjoyment of soaking skins. A twist at my red flannel relieved it of superabundant moisture, but as the negro delighted in no covering except his flesh, an additional kiss of the bottle was the only comfort I could bestow on his ...
— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer

... and finally sat up. He was soaking wet still and very weak. He blinked at the sun, which was now shining brightly, and looked dazedly about him. The four boys ...
— The Go Ahead Boys and the Treasure Cave • Ross Kay

... being starved. But you would open your knapsack, if you had brought one, for me to fill it with potatoes, and halloo out, "Never mind, mother!" although the gravy from the fowls on your saddle before you was soaking through the little modicum of paper which was all I could afford you. So laden, you would cheerfully start up the hill of mud hutward; and well for you if you did not come to grief on that treacherous sea of mud that lay swelling between the Col and your destination. Many a mishap, ludicrous ...
— Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands • Mary Seacole

... it would come down as never before; indeed, it would need to be a record fall, to extinguish those monster flames that were rising like a red wall over the treetops now. But since the woods beyond would be undergoing a gradual soaking, possibly the fire might find it more and more difficult to get a foothold, and finally die out from ...
— The Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods - The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol • Herbert Carter

... envy akin to insanity, for the laurels in the fashion world, and they were talking and laughing gaily, and some of them were singing Christmas carols. They did not even seem to regret the soft wet snow that was falling on their costly apparel and soaking them—they seemed rather to enjoy it. Besides, they could go home at any time and change and dry themselves—and, was it not Christmas, the one time of the year when the whole world was happy and lavish? The persons of the ladies were bathed in perfume, and the clothing of the gentlemen ...
— Skookum Chuck Fables - Bits of History, Through the Microscope • Skookum Chuck (pseud for R.D. Cumming)

... there on the doorstep until I found I was getting a soaking, and then I went to a neighbor about a block away, who always had been very kind to me, and had a girl of her own a little younger than me. Did I tell her? Of course I did; I had to. So she took pity on me and let me sleep there ...
— Fifteen Years With The Outcast • Mrs. Florence (Mother) Roberts

... slowly, slowly came the dawn. You could not define how it came. The whole world seemed to pale and to whiten, and that was all. There was no sunrise. It merely seemed as if all of Nature—very gradually—was soaking itself full of some light; it was dim at first, but never grey; and then it became the whitest, the clearest, the most undefinable light. There were no shadows. Under the brush of the wild land which I was skirting by now there seemed to be quite ...
— Over Prairie Trails • Frederick Philip Grove

... air, and he would draw back with a shiver. Somewhere on these six hundred acres was the herd and it was his chore to find it and bring it in. He would go struggling through the pasture, unable to see twenty-five feet ahead of him, the cold dew or snow soaking through his overalls, his shoes becoming wet. Often he would go a mile north only to have to wander to another end of the farm before he located them. Other times, when he was lucky, they would be waiting within a hundred yards of the barn. Oh, how precious the warm bed was, ...
— Dust • Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius

... were like unto yourselves, O Great Spirit, but were dressed in clothing that appeared to have shrunk and become stained through long soaking in the great water that is salt, were by M'Bongwele's order brought to his village, where he questioned them. But they spoke a tongue that none could understand; they were, therefore, taken out and tormented, some in one ...
— With Airship and Submarine - A Tale of Adventure • Harry Collingwood

... damp woods; a petroleum burner is not essential. The natives always know where to go to find something dry that will burn; as for the white man's cook, he usually improves upon the situation by soaking the wood in petroleum, which is one of the valuable articles of equipment. Often in the jungle, when slightly preparing the ground for erecting the tent, phosphorescent lights from decayed vegetable matter shone in ...
— Through Central Borneo: - An Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head-Hunters - Between the Years 1913 and 1917 • Carl Lumholtz

... sitting-room when I reached the hotel and I told her the whole story. I began by reading the letter. Before she had recovered from the shock of the reading, I told her that I had actually met and talked with Little Frank; and while this astounding bit of news was, so to speak, soaking into her bewildered brain, I went on to impart the crowning item of information—namely, that Little Frank was Miss Frances. Then I sat back and awaited what ...
— Kent Knowles: Quahaug • Joseph C. Lincoln

... slippery rocks at the lip of the mad flood, we swung ourselves about a ledge, dripping with the cool mist-drift; descended to the level of the lower basin, where a soaking fog made us shiver; pushed through a dripping, oozing, autumnal sort of twilight, and came out again into the beat of the desert sun, to look squarely into ...
— The River and I • John G. Neihardt

... moment I came in, the old man was making his dinner on some hard crusts of bread, which he was soaking in a glass of 'eau sucree'. He perceived that my eyes fell upon his hermit fare, and he looked ...
— An "Attic" Philosopher, Complete • Emile Souvestre

... caught sight of the stags—a much more wild and sombre landscape was this, with precipitous black crags overhanging a sullen and solitary loch that had not a bush or a tree along its lifeless shores. As for Lionel, he fought along without repining. His arms were soaking wet up to the elbows; his legs were in a like condition from the knee downward. Then he was damp with perspiration; while ever and anon, when he had to lie prone in the moist grass, or crouch like a frog behind a rock, the cold wind from the hills sent a shiver down his spine or seemed ...
— Prince Fortunatus • William Black

... perhaps the hardest one south of the Arctic, for we travelled steadily for twelve hours with a head-wind and driving snow which rendered progress slow and laborious. Finally, reaching the povarnia of Kurtas[37] in a miserable condition, with frost-bitten faces and soaking furs, we scraped away the snow inside the crazy shelter and kindled a fire, for no food had passed our lips for sixteen hours. But time progressed, and there were no signs of the provision-sled which, ...
— From Paris to New York by Land • Harry de Windt

... such fun in soaking me that I wasn't going to give you the additional satisfaction of seeing ...
— The Jester of St. Timothy's • Arthur Stanwood Pier

... when I get home I expect to make lots of pretty things. I love to play on the beach, and pick up pretty little things, and run out after the waves, then turn and let them chase me back; sometimes they catch me, and give my feet a good soaking; but I don't care, for I like it, only I look like a fright by the time I get ...
— Harper's Young People, August 17, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... the last. The air-breathing land-snails, of which we know four thousand six hundred species, could never have survived a twelve months' soaking; and they must therefore be cared for. The nine thousand two hundred of these add no little to the discomfort ...
— The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science - A Discourse • William Denton

... was red with blood—the young boy's blood—which was soaking and bubbling up through the fresh sand where the elephant had trodden, in a ...
— Hypatia - or, New Foes with an Old Face • Charles Kingsley

... could be expected. The fox can be seen crossing the back of the hill, looking big and red, and full of running; but after twenty-five minutes over all sorts of ground, from medium bad to "downright cruel," for the soaking rains have made a very pudding even of the pasture, the fox is run into and killed close to the Thames. No one need be sorry for him, for he had lived by theft and violence for the past two years, and was duly eaten himself by his natural enemies. Then back to the wood ...
— The Naturalist on the Thames • C. J. Cornish

... persistently. We must ride on donkeys, in waterproofs, to Monte Cassino. Mountain and valley, oak wood and ilex grove, lentisk thicket and winding river-bed, are drowned alike in soft-descending, soaking rain. Far and near the landscape swims in rain, and the hill-sides send down torrents through ...
— New Italian sketches • John Addington Symonds

... "Actually he's soaking up more arithmetic, geology, physics, veterinary knowledge, and so on, by pumping Pat Carrigan, the engineers, and the men, than I supposed his head could hold," Lee continued. "When he gets at his books, ...
— The Iron Furrow • George C. Shedd

... such summer rains as had not been known in the Hills for many seasons. Through three good months the valley was wrapped in cloud and soaking mist—steady, unrelenting downfall, breaking off into thunder-shower after thunder-shower. Kali's Shrine stood above the clouds, for the most part, and there was a whole month in which the Bhagat never caught a glimpse of his village. It was packed ...
— The Second Jungle Book • Rudyard Kipling

... said Drummond. For the past few days he had been very much out of sorts. He put it down to a chill caught after the Ripton match. He had never mustered up sufficient courage to sponge himself with cold water after soaking in a hot bath, and he occasionally suffered ...
— The White Feather • P. G. Wodehouse

... Let crops harvest too early or too late. Spoil stores of grain, fruit and vegetables by soaking them in water so that they will rot. Spoil fruit and vegetables by leaving ...
— Simple Sabotage Field Manual • Strategic Services

... heel, and shaking his fist in the direction whence he had come, as if against the enemy who had caused his benefactress so much distress, he pronounced a formal and emphatic curse upon their whole race, "from the head-chief to the commoner, from the whisky-soaking warrior down to the pan-licking squall-a-baby," all of whom he anathematised with as much originality as fervour of expression; after which, he proceeded, with more sedateness, to resume his post at the head of the travellers, and conduct them ...
— Nick of the Woods • Robert M. Bird

... He was already soaking wet, so he did not mind the rain as he ran over the trail to the Yellow Dragon. The storm was with him, and it was easy going, although there was no Hall at the other end of it to man the brake for him and regulate the speed of the ...
— Dutch Courage and Other Stories • Jack London

... round, as in Covent-garden, the appearance of the whole would have been more magnificent and striking; those arcades would have afforded an agreeable covered walk, and sheltered the poor chairmen and their carriages from the rain, which is here almost perpetual. At present, the chairs stand soaking in the open street, from morning to night, till they become so many boxes of wet leather, for the benefit of the gouty and rheumatic, who are transported in them from place to place. Indeed this is a shocking inconvenience ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett

... half an hour, and then keep it in running water for several hours. If the water is hot, the time of soaking may be lessened: boiling water is objectionable. Nearly dry the positive between sheets of clean blotting-paper, and finish it by passing a very hot ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 189, June 11, 1853 • Various

... Chimneys, Boilers, etc.; Steam Engines — Grinding and Trituration of Tanning Substances: Cutting up Bark; Grinding Bark; The Grinding of Tan Woods; Powdering Fruit, Galls and Grains; Notes on the Grinding of Bark — Manufacture of Sole Leather: Soaking; Sweating and Unhairing; Plumping and Colouring; Handling; Tanning; Tanning Elephants' Hides; Drying; Striking or Pinning — Manufacture of Dressing Leather: Soaking; Depilation; New Processes for the Depilation of Skins; Tanning; ...
— The Dyeing of Woollen Fabrics • Franklin Beech

... third morning was truly pitiful. My clothes were beginning to rot; my stockings in particular were quite worn through, so that my shanks went naked; my hands had grown quite soft with the continual soaking; my throat was very sore, my strength had much abated, and my heart so turned against the horrid stuff I was condemned to eat, that the very sight of it came near ...
— Kidnapped • Robert Louis Stevenson

... into conversation whenever it could be done. In addition to a desire to set his well-polished boots in strong contrast against those of busy, unobserving Luther, the only dressing of which was an occasional soaking in oil to keep them from cracking, John Hunter had been half forced to like honest, kindly Luther Hansen. Luther was not a man to arouse antagonisms. He assumed his natural role with Elizabeth even before her fiance and let the ground ...
— The Wind Before the Dawn • Dell H. Munger

... lodged, they are frequently left to their fate until they become fairly noisome, for is there anything more offensive to aesthetic taste than blackened and decaying flowers soaking in ...
— The Garden, You, and I • Mabel Osgood Wright

... tall, sunburned young fellow, with powerful shoulders and an easy, free-limbed carriage; he was also soaking ...
— A Young Man in a Hurry - and Other Short Stories • Robert W. Chambers

... soaking night, we were kept waiting till noon for the forty porters ordered by Kamrasi, to carry our property to the vessels wherever they might be. Only twenty-five men arrived, notwithstanding the wife and one ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke

... very seldom saw the dwarfs; but if she were idle or stubborn, or had any hopes of getting away, one was sure to start up at her elbow and pinch her funny-bone, or poke her in the ribs, till she did her best. Her back ached with stooping over the wash-tub; her hands and arms grew wrinkled with soaking in hot soapsuds, and sore with rubbing. Whatever she did not know how to do, the woman of the heath taught her. At first, whilst Amelia was sulky, the woman of the heath was sharp and cross; but when Amelia became willing and obedient, she was good-natured, ...
— The Brownies and Other Tales • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... manner, talking and cooing to him all the time, and at last I caught him, and the little fellow was so glad to be with friends once more, he curled himself in my hands, and put two little wet paws around a thumb and held on tight. It was raining, and he was soaking wet, so he must have been out of doors. It would have been heartbreaking to have been obliged to come away without finding that little grayback, and perhaps never know what became of him. I know where my dear dog is, and that is bad ...
— Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888 • Frances M.A. Roe

... how our canoe stood the soaking it got last night?" observed Fenn, "Let's go to the creek and take a look. Frank may ...
— Frank Roscoe's Secret • Allen Chapman

... into that farm courtyard, and entering the building. Dark, dismal and deserted as it was, it afforded an immense, glowing feeling of comfort after that mysterious, dark and wintry plain, with its long lines of grey trenches soaking away there under ...
— Bullets & Billets • Bruce Bairnsfather

... pieces of squared timber, lay near the fire, with a tireless wheel placed flat upon them, the hub in the square hole at the center. Shiftless farmers always resisted having tires set until they would no longer stay on the wheel. The inevitable day was postponed, time and again, by a soaking of the wheels overnight in some convenient puddle of water; but as the warmer and dryer weather approached this device, supplemented by wooden wedges, no longer sufficed, and the tires had to be set for summer work. Frequently the ...
— In the Midst of Alarms • Robert Barr

... will, at no time, admit a strong current of chilly air, so as to endanger the life of the brood. As bees are, at all times, prone to close the ventilators with propolis, they must be placed where they can easily be removed, and cleansed, by soaking them in boiling water. ...
— Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee - A Bee Keeper's Manual • L. L. Langstroth

... her innocence were all an art. "Oh he's giving himself up, and he'll do so to the end. How can he but want, now that it's within reach, his full impression?—which is much more important, you know, than either yours or mine. But he's just soaking," Strether said as he came back; "he's going in conscientiously for a saturation. I'm bound to ...
— The Ambassadors • Henry James

... last that could be remembered, she had been playing by herself in the green chamber, soaking Dinah's feet in a glass of water. The "blue kitty," the only creature who had anything to tell, sat washing her face on the kitchen hearth, and yawning sleepily. Fly's shaker was gone from the "short nail," and aunt Louise discovered some bank-bills in a wash-bowl,—"Fly's work, of course." ...
— Dotty Dimple's Flyaway • Sophie May

... which had begun with a thin drive, had now settled into one of those sod-soaking, autumn downpours, commonly called an equinoctial storm. Estabrook was showing the effect of his nervous strain by driving the machine through it with a recklessness of which I disapproved, not only ...
— The Blue Wall - A Story of Strangeness and Struggle • Richard Washburn Child

... sword-grass, and tall reeds,—the grasses enormous, like Japanese decorations,—crossing the darks of the opposite shore and the lights of the river and sky. Our tents are pitched, our blankets spread in the sun, our wagon is soaking its tired feet in the river. Tom and Harshaw are up-stream somewhere, fishing for supper. Billings is bargaining with Old Man Decker for the "keep" of his team. Kitty and I are enjoying ourselves. There is a rip in one of the back seams of my jacket, Kitty tells me, ...
— A Touch Of Sun And Other Stories • Mary Hallock Foote

... has been salted and dried should be put to soak (if it is old and very hard, 24 hours before it is wanted) in plenty of water; a green one fresh from the pickle requires soaking only a few hours: put your tongue into plenty of cold water; let it be an hour gradually warming; and give it from three and a half to four hours' very slow simmering, according to the ...
— The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual • William Kitchiner

... rock-bound shore are really before me. Yes, we are on the soil of Old England, and are soon to see its glories and greatness, and, I fear, its miseries, for a bird's eye view has already satisfied me that there is enough of poverty. You know we left New York in a soaking rain, and the wind blowing fresh from the north-east. We all felt disappointed, as we had hoped to pass down the bay, so celebrated for its beauty, with the bright sunshine to cheer our way; but we had to take comfort from the ...
— Young Americans Abroad - Vacation in Europe: Travels in England, France, Holland, - Belgium, Prussia and Switzerland • Various

... not know why words were difficult and the faces moved in circles about him. The blood soaking his shirt and blouse, and dripping off his sleeve was cause enough, but he did not even ...
— The Treasure Trail - A Romance of the Land of Gold and Sunshine • Marah Ellis Ryan

... is a slow method. The heat increases gradually, and applies to the glass what the kiln-man calls a "good, soaking heat." The meaning of this expression, of course, is that the gradual heat gives time for the glass and the pigment to fuse together in a natural way, more likely to be good and permanent in its ...
— Stained Glass Work - A text-book for students and workers in glass • C. W. Whall

... I let the geese Have all the wet; For should my fleece All soaking get, 'Twould be too heavy for my play— So to ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume VIII, No 25: May 21, 1887 • Various

... soaking its way into the sand from those two "stiffies" on the beach. The sullen silence, except for the distant crackle and the occasional moan of a shell. The rain which came pelting down in great cold blobs, splashing and soaking ...
— At Suvla Bay • John Hargrave



Words linked to "Soaking" :   washing, sousing, drenching, natural action, natural process, action, wetting, wash, lavation, activity, dripping



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