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Stake   /steɪk/   Listen
Stake

noun
1.
(law) a right or legal share of something; a financial involvement with something.  Synonym: interest.  "A stake in the company's future"
2.
A pole or stake set up to mark something (as the start or end of a race track).  Synonym: post.  "The corner of the lot was indicated by a stake"
3.
Instrument of execution consisting of a vertical post that a victim is tied to for burning.
4.
The money risked on a gamble.  Synonyms: bet, stakes, wager.
5.
A strong wooden or metal post with a point at one end so it can be driven into the ground.



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"Stake" Quotes from Famous Books



... implanted in the mind by conscience and authority. To resolve this feeling into the greatest happiness principle takes away from its sacred and authoritative character. The martyr will not go to the stake in order that he may promote the happiness of mankind, but for the sake of the truth: neither will the soldier advance to the cannon's mouth merely because he believes military discipline to be for the good of mankind. It is better for him ...
— Philebus • Plato

... mountains. Then Ulysses, of whose strength or cunning the Cyclop seems to have had as little heed as of an infant's, being left alone, with the remnant of his men which the Cyclop had not devoured, gave manifest proof how far manly wisdom excels brutish force. He chose a stake from among the wood which the Cyclop had piled up for firing, in length and thickness like a mast, which he sharpened and hardened in the fire, and selected four men, and instructed them what they should do with this stake, and made ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb

... and Sivert would gladly have had the bright thing himself; but Andresen would not part with it—kept it wrapped up in tissue paper in his chest. Sivert proposed a wrestling match for the money—see who could throw the other; but Andresen would not risk it. Sivert offered to stake twenty Kroner in notes against the gold piece, and do all the digging himself into the bargain if he won; but Andresen took offence at that. "Ho," said he, "and you'd like to go back home, no doubt, and say I'm no good at working on the land!" ...
— Growth of the Soil • Knut Hamsun

... that died at the stake; the explorers that fought with Nature and opened up the world for us; the reformers (they had to do something more than talk in those days) who won for us our liberties; the men who gave their lives to science and art, when science and art brought, ...
— Evergreens - From a volume entitled "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" • Jerome K. Jerome

... rights of sovereignty ought to be respected, it is the duty of other nations to require that this important passage shall not be interrupted by the civil wars and revolutionary outbreaks which have so frequently occurred in that region. The stake is too important to be left at the mercy of rival companies claiming to hold conflicting contracts with Nicaragua. The commerce of other nations is not to stand still and await the adjustment of such petty controversies. The Government of the United States expect no ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 4 (of 4) of Volume 5: James Buchanan • James D. Richardson

... Mort—my faith in that girl is at stake. Was there nothing in her favor? Nothing that ...
— The Tyranny of the Dark • Hamlin Garland

... Negro womanhood! Crucified at the stake, while we men play the part of women, for, what can we do?" said Ensal, looking at Earl, tears of pity for his people welling up in his eyes and stealing their way ...
— The Hindered Hand - or, The Reign of the Repressionist • Sutton E. Griggs

... sneeze coming on for seconds. He had fought it frantically, with life itself at stake. But he could not hold it back. In his naked body, beginning to burn with fever from the long-clogged pores and insulated not at all by the film from the coolness of the room, the seeds of that soft explosion had been planted—and they would ...
— The Radiant Shell • Paul Ernst

... her lip, her whole nature in revolt, but she made no reply. Too much was at stake for her to show anger at such coarseness. She had no rights that he was bound to respect. She was only one of his work-girls, and her short experience had shown her that but few of her associates received better ...
— Felix O'Day • F. Hopkinson Smith

... be no reasonable complaint of the interference of the government. The government, whether of State or nation, represents the people, and the people have a large stake in every industrial dispute. Society is so interdependent that thousands are affected seriously by every derangement of industry. This is especially true of the stoppage of railways, mines, or large ...
— Society - Its Origin and Development • Henry Kalloch Rowe

... day, and finally I decided to stay, merely to please her. Because I had nothing more to do than to make her happy, I determined to make the best of things. You've made me feel that, in a way, it's myself that's at stake. I want to take it and make it widely known among vineyards, as it has been—for my ...
— Master of the Vineyard • Myrtle Reed

... little lights above the thousands of Oriental shops; with the sound of bells, the whistle of salesmen, the laughter of beautiful Japanese girls; the clacking of dainty feet in wooden shoes; and the indefinable essence of romance that hovers over a street of this Oriental type at night. I'll stake the romance, and beauty of the Ginza in Tokyo, against any street in the world. He who has looked upon the Ginza by night, has a Flash-Light of Flame; of tiny, myriad little flaming lights; burned into his memory; to live until he sees at last the ...
— Flash-lights from the Seven Seas • William L. Stidger

... burned at the stake unsettles the excitable brain of another one—I mean the inflaming details of his crime, and the lurid theatricality of his exit do it—and the duplicate crime follows; and that begets a repetition, and that one another one and so on. ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... an isolated aftermath in alien conditions, a set performance not quite in his true vein. His brief addresses of the later years were incidental; they had no combative element. Never again was he to attempt to sway an audience for an immediate stake through the use of the spoken word. "A brief description of Mr. Lincoln's appearance on the stump and of his manner when speaking," as Herndon aptly remarks, "may not be without interest. When standing erect, he was six feet four inches high. He was lean in flesh and ungainly in figure. Aside ...
— Lincoln • Nathaniel Wright Stephenson

... effort—all the rest will come to you. There isn't any problem but some day you'll learn to do, And at last, when you grow older, you will come to understand That by hard and patient toiling men have risen to command And some day you will discover when a greater goal's at stake That better far than brilliance is ...
— All That Matters • Edgar A. Guest

... comfort of those she loved and the truly new woman, than between the latter and her average emancipated sister. The disciples of emancipation pure and simple declared me heathen, merely fit for the stake. Their blind zeal did not let them see that my comparison between the old and the new was merely to prove that a goodly number of our grandmothers had more blood in their veins, far more humor and wit, and certainly a greater amount of naturalness, ...
— Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 1, March 1906 • Various

... the easy sense, When he needn't worry about expense— We'll all play square when it doesn't count And the sum at stake's not a large amount— But he was square when the times were bad, An' keepin' his word took ...
— When Day is Done • Edgar A. Guest

... two causes of the war which have been specified, the difference was fundamental. Whichever was right, the question at stake was in each case one of principle, and of necessity. Great Britain never claimed to impress American seamen; but she did assert that her native-born subjects could never change their allegiance, that she had an inalienable right to their service, and to seize them wherever found, except ...
— Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 - Volume 1 • Alfred Thayer Mahan

... to betray his confession. Saint-Thomas, hearing this, thought that this incident was of more importance than the trial, which concerned the life of only one person, whereas the honour of religion was at stake, with consequences infinitely more important. He felt he must verify this statement, and summoned the confessor. When he had admitted the breach of faith, the judges were obliged to revoke their sentence and pardon the criminal, much to the gratification of the public mind. The confessor was adjudged ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - THE MARQUISE DE BRINVILLIERS • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... explanations have always appeared somewhat insufficient when applying our timid methods of induction to the revolutions of the creative epochs which have decided the fate of humanity. Jesus lived at one of those times when the game of public life is freely played, and when the stake of human activity is increased a hundredfold. Every great part, then, entails death; for such movements suppose liberty and an absence of preventive measures, which could not exist without a terrible alternative. ...
— The Life of Jesus • Ernest Renan

... head lying against his hand which was in turn supported by an elbow resting on the ground, Jesus lay in his undergarment, his traveling coat thrown over a tent stake near by. "Sit thee down and rest, Jael," he said. "The friend at my side is a Hindoo of great wisdom and knowledge of the stars. When I traveled in far lands he was to me as a brother. Well be it thy steps have led thee to cross ...
— The Coming of the King • Bernie Babcock

... most stinging necessity, and were almost worthless when they came. Of one "noble captain" who refused to come, Washington wrote: "With coolness and moderation this great captain answered that his wife, family, and corn were all at stake; so were those of his soldiers; therefore it was impossible for him to come. Such is the example of the officers; such the behavior of the men; and upon such circumstances depends the safety of our country!" But while the soldiers were neglected, ...
— George Washington, Vol. I • Henry Cabot Lodge

... from my, lofty perch I crew, And would have sung much longer too, When came a crooked devil's minion, The slater 'twas in my opinion. Who after many a knock and shake Detached me wholly from my stake. My poor old heart was broke at last When from the roof he pulled me past The bells which from their station glared And on my fate in wonder stared, But vexed themselves no more about me, Thinking they'd ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various

... "Better stake the ponies nearer camp in case anything comes along. I came across bear tracks a few miles to the east of here," the big ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in Montana • Frank Gee Patchin

... material force of a country is from below, wisdom and experience are from above. It is not a small part of human evils which kings and governments make or cure. The statesman is well aware that a great purpose carried out consistently during many years will at last be executed. He is playing for a stake which may be partly determined by some accident, and therefore he will allow largely for the unknown element of politics. But the game being one in which chance and skill are combined, if he plays long enough he is certain of victory. He will not be always consistent, ...
— Gorgias • Plato

... assignable motive; that they maintained this uniform constancy in unprofitable falsehoods, not only together, but separately, in different countries, before different tribunals, under all sorts of examinations and cross-examinations, and in defiance of the gyves, the scourge, the axe, the cross, the stake; that these whom they persuaded to join their enterprise, persisted like themselves in the same obstinate belief of the same 'cunningly devised' frauds; and though they had many accomplices in their singular conspiracy, had the equally singular fortune to free themselves ...
— Reason and Faith; Their Claims and Conflicts • Henry Rogers

... battle of Leuthen; it is the consultation of Frederick the Great with his generals just before that terrible battle; and men don't look like that just before a struggle in which the very existence of their country is at stake, and in which they know that most of them must ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White

... pages that followed were to be found an illustrated poem telling of the awful fate of John Rogers, burned at the stake while his wife and their ten children looked on, and a dialogue between Christ, a youth and the devil, in which the youth was ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5 • Charles Sylvester

... financiers, and I gratified those higher instincts of my race by rendering possible a visit to Delgratz of the lady whom you had chosen as a bride, while at the same time I hope to do myself a good turn in winning your favor; for I have money at stake on your success. Please do not forget that, your Majesty. I supported the Delgrado cause when it was at the lowest ebb of failure, and I naturally look forward now to ...
— A Son of the Immortals • Louis Tracy

... all shou'd end his Life, And with a keen-whet Chopping-Knife In a Thousand pieces cleave him, Let the Parliament first him undertake, They'll make the Rascal stink at stake, And so, like ...
— Quaint Gleanings from Ancient Poetry • Edmund Goldsmid

... With them a pound, or 'corral,' was in process of construction. Part of it was already finished, and I perceived that it was to be of a circular shape. The poles, or stakes, were driven into the ground in a curving line at the distance of about a rod from each other. When thus driven, each stake stood four feet high, and from the top of one to the other, ropes were ranged and tied, thus making the inclosure complete. Along these ropes were knotted the rags and strips of cotton, so as to hang nearly to the ground, or flutter in the wind; and this slight semblance of a fence was continued ...
— The Hunters' Feast - Conversations Around the Camp Fire • Mayne Reid

... wall the onlookers were far more excited than the gladiators in the arena. The Perezes sympathised with their personal property, but Roldan and Adan felt that the bear was their menagerie, and that their honour was at stake. Party feeling ran very high. Roldan and Benito were twice separated by ...
— The Valiant Runaways • Gertrude Atherton

... Times) 'declares that the poorest artisan has a greater stake than they' ('the Landed Interest') 'in the prosperity of the country, and is, consequently, more likely to give sound advice. His exposition of the intimate connection existing between the welfare of the poor ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... traditions and your admirable Arab language, but also the grace and mystery that used to characterise your town, the refined luxury of your dwelling-houses. It is not a question now of a poet's fancy; your national dignity is at stake. You are Orientals—I pronounce respectfully that word, which implies a whole past of early civilisation, of unmingled greatness—but in a few years, unless you are on your guard, you will have become mere Levantine brokers, exclusively preoccupied ...
— Egypt (La Mort De Philae) • Pierre Loti

... now. I've something at stake that'll help me fight. You can't guess, though, how that craving—Lucky I'll have Jimmy, as well, to back me up. He's great when it comes to jollying a fellow ...
— Out of the Primitive • Robert Ames Bennet

... military point of view. You have done quite enough for your reputation as a gallant and skilful leader. We all look to you as the only person fit to act with these perverse Chinese, and to be trusted with the great interests at stake at Shanghai. Your life and ability to keep the field are more important than the capture of ...
— General Gordon - A Christian Hero • Seton Churchill

... Christ. Who are they that confessed their Lord before men, in the early ages of the gospel? "Within a few years after Christ, the Christian martyrologies are full of the names of female sufferers, who, for Jesus' sake, went to the stake, with all the ...
— The Young Maiden • A. B. (Artemas Bowers) Muzzey

... not fairly call himself a politician unless as any son of the fair South must be one at least at heart, however devoid of the gifts which have made her greatest heard from continent to continent. He was only one of the many who had at stake their cherished institutions, the homes they loved, the beloved who brightened those homes, and their own happiness as it was centred in those homes, and irrevocably bound in that of the fairest land upon which the ...
— In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... were stupefied with horror, and stood helplessly with our useless guns, watching and waiting for the seemingly inevitable doom of our comrade. Not so with the Major! Knowing that he was a marked man by the Indians and feeling that any death was preferable to the gauntlet, the knife, the stake and torch of the merciless savage, he had grasped at a desperate chance. He saw his enemies stealthily darting from rock to tree, and tree to bush, creeping through the brush, and slipping closer and closer every moment. On three sides were his hated ...
— Betty Zane • Zane Grey

... boys are living peaceably in their cabin on the Cuyahoga when an Indian warrior is found dead in the woods nearby. The Seneca accuses John of witchcraft. This means death at the stake if he is captured. They decide that the Seneca's charge is made to shield himself, and set out to prove it. Mad Anthony, then on the Ohio, comes to their aid, but all their efforts prove futile and the lone cabin is found in ashes on ...
— The Boy Scout Fire Fighters - or Jack Danby's Bravest Deed • Robert Maitland

... no mistake! And now you'll perhaps see how I put things together, like. No doubt those folk as sent Sir Cresswell that message did see the Pike going east last evening—just so, but there wasn't no reason, considering what that chap and his lot had at stake why they shouldn't put him and one or two more, very likely, on one of the many tugs that's to be met with out there off the fishing grounds. What I conclude they did, guv'nor, was to charter one o' them tugs ...
— Scarhaven Keep • J. S. Fletcher

... the great good of life were denied them. They feel themselves neglected. Their condition cuts them off from communion with educated and refined people. They think they have little or no stake in the general weal of life. They feel as though they have no character to lose, consequently intemperance ...
— The American Missionary, Volume XLII. No. 10. October 1888 • Various

... was imprudent; Abbotsford was his weakness, but it was no ignoble weakness. If the ideal of the life which he proposed to himself there was scarcely a heroic one, neither was it vulgar or selfish. The artist or the philosopher should perhaps be superior to the ambition of owning land and having "a stake in the country," but the ambition is a very human one and has its good side. In Scott the desire was more social than personal. It was not that title and territory were feathers in his cap, but that they bound him more closely to the dear soil of Scotland ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century • Henry A. Beers

... more deference in a matter of this kind than Garcilasso himself. It was natural that the descendant of the Incas should desire to relieve his race from so odious an imputation; and we must have charity for him, if he does show himself, on some occasions, where the honor of his country is at stake, "high gravel blind." It should be added, in justice to the Peruvian government, that the best authorities concur in the admission, that the sacrifices were few, both in number and in magnitude, being reserved for such extraordinary ...
— The History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William H. Prescott

... hast no need to look so troubled; for thou seest that I was not burned. This is the selfsame body that was tied to the stake in the market place of the king's city many a ...
— The Well at the World's End • William Morris

... old Jerry to-morrow morning, and in the afternoon we'll send down a couple of the men, when we've made sure that the Pirate Shark is out of the way. And if there's as much of the stuff as you say you saw, Mart, you'll have a good stake to—" ...
— The Pirate Shark • Elliott Whitney

... are endeavoring to reclaim? Yes. I might have guessed it. I have heard people say that the scheme of Mr. Savine, if that is his name, is impracticable. It is characteristic of you, Geoffrey, to play out a losing game, but, with one's future at stake, ...
— Thurston of Orchard Valley • Harold Bindloss

... the late Dr. Mantell, and published in the "Medals of Creation," has been reproduced in the recent illustrated edition of the "Vestiges of Creation." But the ingenious author of that work could scarce act prudently were he to stake the soundness of his hypothesis on the integrity of the restoration. For my own part, I consent, if it can be shown that the Pterichthys which once lived and moved on this ancient globe of ours ...
— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller

... SYSTEM.—In the political relations of countries, it is found necessary to comprehend all parts of the globe in the political system, in the right adjustment of which each country has a stake, and over which stretches an acknowledged code of international law. The establishment of an international tribunal of arbitration at The Hague is a long step toward making such a code effective and ...
— Outline of Universal History • George Park Fisher

... to six inches long. In planting them, from three to four inches of the trunk are left above ground. The little basin of earth for the reception and filtration of the rain-water, is not so large in the stake system of planting as in that with the clod of earth "a la mota;" but if the soil be poor, it must be proportionably enlarged to admit the application of the ...
— The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom • P. L. Simmonds

... martial bravery—his moccasins, his bear-skin leggins, his bear-skin hunting-shirt, his bear-skin war-cap, and his war-belt with its gleaming death-steel—guise so well beseeming the Big Black Brave with a bushy head. But in a game so desperate, with objects so precious and dear at stake, the indulgence of so small a vanity were another thought not worth the second thinking. Therefore did the magnanimous Burl dismantle himself at once. Aware that, in the coming contest, he should barely have time to let fly the single bullet already in his rifle, when he must take to his hatchet ...
— Burl • Morrison Heady

... for the suppression of the Southern Rebellion came on, and the life of the Union was at stake, the same old spirit was found unabated. A descendant of the family of Raymonds, emulating the example of his ancestors, rallied his company to the front. At the end of the war, Lieutenant-Colonel John W. Raymond ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham

... some thick but tender slices from the mastodon, and impaling them with the remains of the heart on a sharpened stake, they took up the wires, and the battery that had been supplying the current, and retraced their steps by the way they had come. Their rubber-lined cowhide boots protected them from all but the largest snakes, and as these were for the most part already enjoying their gorge, they trampled with ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds - A Romance of the Future • John Jacob Astor

... foe, now, near at hand. 680 Nor he, thus occupied, unseen escaped By Asius' offspring Adamas, who close Advancing, struck the centre of his shield. But Neptune azure-hair'd so dear a life Denied to Adamas, and render'd vain 685 The weapon; part within his disk remain'd Like a seer'd stake, and part fell at his feet. Then Adamas, for his own life alarm'd, Retired, but as he went, Meriones Him reaching with his lance, the shame between 690 And navel pierced him, where the stroke of Mars Proves painful most to miserable man. There enter'd deep the weapon; down he fell, ...
— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer

... not say any more. We've never had any bitter words between us, father. You don't understand this—do you think I would hurt you and mother, if it didn't have to be? I gave up my own life, when it was only myself at stake; but I cannot give her up—and everything it will ...
— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)

... said Danglar, with his short, grating laugh. "We've as good as got the stones now, and we're going through to-night for a clean-up of all that old mess. We stake the whole thing. Get me, Bertha—the whole thing! I'm showing my hand for the first time. Cloran's the man that's making you wear those clothes; Cloran's the only one who could go into the witness box and swear that you were the woman who murdered Deemer; ...
— The White Moll • Frank L. Packard

... stoop for happiness; I cannot change it. Fate condemns them, not I. They are condemned, but the sword which is suspended above them must fall only upon his head. His is the guilt, for he is the man. His stake was immense, and he has ...
— Berlin and Sans-Souci • Louise Muhlbach

... lines lie down where they late stood staunchly— Cloaks around them rolled—by the bivouac embers: There at dawn to stake in the dynasts' ...
— The Dynasts - An Epic-Drama Of The War With Napoleon, In Three Parts, - Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes • Thomas Hardy

... induced him to look over the Professor's shoulder, and thus enable him to follow the movement of the boat, and by means of which he could see the sails slowly move past the distant stake. ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: Exploring the Island • Roger Thompson Finlay

... which he had been steering between his knee and the stake at the rear of the sledge, and put his ...
— On a Torn-Away World • Roy Rockwood

... work beneath the part which lies along the ground, at the very foot of the stake; they dig a funnel into which the Mole's muzzle, head and neck sink little by little. The gibbet becomes uprooted as they descend and ends by falling, dragged over by the weight of its heavy burden. I am assisting at the spectacle ...
— The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles • Jean Henri Fabre

... important period in history, as connected with the Derby family. Two short years before, the great, the brave Sir William Stanley, who, of his own power and interest, raised and brought 3000 horse and foot to the rescue of his prince, when his life, his honour, and his hopes of a throne were at stake; who contributed to his victory, and helped to crown him 'King' in the field; had, by that very sovereign, been sent to the block, merely on account of a doubtful and unguarded expression, reported by a rebel, a traitor, and an ungenerous ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... interest. The last was the only point on which he confessed a real difficulty. The primary purpose of the constitutional clause, he owned, was to protect "contracts the parties to which have a vested beneficial interest" in them, whereas the trustees had no such interest at stake. But, said he, the case is within the words of the rule, and "must be within its operation likewise, unless there be something in the literal construction" obviously at war with the spirit of the Constitution, which was far from the ...
— John Marshall and the Constitution - A Chronicle of the Supreme Court, Volume 16 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Edward S. Corwin

... soon declare my opinion. I think, earl, thou must turn all thy attention to supporting King Olaf the king of Norway's desire that this message be laid before the Swedish king, in whatever way he may answer it. Although the Swedish king's anger should be incurred, and our power and property be at stake, yet will I rather run the risk, than that it should be said the message of King Olaf was neglected from fear of the Swedish king. Thou hast that birth, strength of relations, and other means, that here in the Swedish land it is ...
— Heimskringla - The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway • Snorri Sturluson

... Ramsay's explanation had not pleased Mrs. Bassett; but Mrs. Owen evinced no feeling. Marian was enjoying Colonel Ramsay's praise of her father's adroitness. Near Sylvia were other women who had much at stake in the result of the convention. The wife of a candidate for secretary of state had invited herself to a seat beside Mrs. Bassett; the wife of a Congressman who wished to be governor, sat near, publishing to the world her intimate acquaintance with Morton Bassett's family. The appearance and ...
— A Hoosier Chronicle • Meredith Nicholson

... knew by name, who indeed knew a friend of mine—offered me $45. I shook my head, and going next door, Mr V. made it a dollar less. It took me half-an-hour to reduce that again to forty-three; but at last Mr A., who was as much interested in this little game as if I were a big stake at poker, went suddenly down to $41. I offered to toss him whether it should be $40 or $42. He accepted, and I won the toss. As he made out the ticket, he remarked, almost sadly, "We don't make anything out of this." But he cheered up, and added, "Well, the others don't either." ...
— A Tramp's Notebook • Morley Roberts

... who was granted letters patent of nobility and the captaincy of Langeais about 1465. After listening to thrilling tales of the barbarous cruelty of Fulk the Black, Count of Anjou, who had his first wife burned at the stake and made himself very disagreeable in other ways, as our guide naively remarked in French of the purest Touraine brand, Lydia exclaimed, "The more perfect the French, the easier ...
— In Chteau Land • Anne Hollingsworth Wharton

... women and children of the settlement. Outside raged four hundred savage warriors, under a skilful commander. It seemed absolute madness to attempt a defence. Yet Colonel Sheppard was not one of the men who lightly surrender. Death by the rifle was, in his view, better than death at the stake. With him were two men, Ebenezer and Silas Zane, of his own calibre, while the whole garrison was made up of hearts ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 1 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... "And what stake shall we play for?" asked Feodor, as he cast a look of ill-concealed contempt on his young companions, who so little understood the art of drinking the cup of pleasure with decency, and rolled about on their seats with ...
— The Merchant of Berlin - An Historical Novel • L. Muhlbach

... to death of your well-groomed gods, your make-believe and your show; I long for a whiff of bacon and beans, a snug shake-down in the snow, A trail to break, and a life at stake, and another ...
— Songs of a Sourdough • Robert W. Service

... time, Bunyan was disturbed by a strange dilemma: "If I have not faith, I am lost; if I have faith, I can work miracles." He was tempted to cry to the puddles between Elstow and Bedford, "Be ye dry," and to stake his eternal ...
— Brave Men and Women - Their Struggles, Failures, And Triumphs • O.E. Fuller

... exclaimed, in all the heat of my long-suppressed agitation. "I am willing to stake my life on his integrity and honor. No man could talk to me as he did early this evening with any vile intentions at heart. He was interested, no doubt, like many others, in one who had the name of being ...
— The Woman in the Alcove • Anna Katharine Green

... desolate conditions, he can make as a little haven unto us; he can make us sing in the wilderness, and can give us our vineyards from thence (Hosea 2:14,15). He can make Paul sing in the stocks, and good Rowland Taylor dance as he goeth to the burning stake. Jails, and mocks, and scourgings, and flouts and imprisonments, and hunger, and nakedness, and peril, and sword, and dens, and caves, and rocks, and mountains, God can so sweeten with the honey of his Word, and make so famous for ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... many persons do not like to play at cards except for a stake, the stakes agreed to at parties should be very trifling, so as not to create excitement ...
— Enquire Within Upon Everything - The Great Victorian Domestic Standby • Anonymous

... sacrificing popularity and monetary gain, dare to speak out on this question have no hatred in our hearts, but only love for our country. We believe that not only our national security but our great national traditions are at stake, and that unless England awakens in time she will pass under alien domination and her influence as the stronghold of Christian civilization will be ...
— Secret Societies And Subversive Movements • Nesta H. Webster

... step; but at length, exhausted and subdued, it returned to camp with its burden, amid the exulting shouts of the savages. When within a mile of Chilicothe, they took Butler from the horse, and tied him to a stake, where, for twenty-four hours, he remained in one position. He was then untied to run the gauntlet. Six hundred Indians, men, women, and children, armed with clubs and switches, arranged themselves in two parallel lines, to strike ...
— Forest & Frontiers • G. A. Henty

... alone. The cotton produced, mainly by black labor, has increased from 4,669,770 bales in 1860 to 11,235,000 in 1899. All this we have done under the most adverse circumstances. We have done it in the face of lynching, burning at the stake, with the humiliation of "Jim Crow" cars, the disfranchisement of our male citizens, slander and degradation of our women, with the factories closed against us, no Negro permitted to be conductor on the railway-cars, whether run through the streets of our cities or across ...
— Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence - The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the days of - Slavery to the Present Time • Various

... word! If he can stake his all upon the lightest object, I can stake my all upon a greater purpose. Let him go where he will, with the means that my love has secured to him! Does he think to reduce me by long absence? He knows his mother very little if he does. Let him put away his whim ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens

... to embrace the Christian faith, was a promise of mitigation in his punishment. The dread of a cruel death extorted from the trembling victim a desire of receiving baptism. The ceremony was performed; and Atahualpa, instead of being burnt alive, was strangled at the stake." ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr

... he spoke again. "Ah, but it's a night to be stirring! I'll stake all my pay for this unlucky voyage that there's not a native on the island who hasn't a bag of rubies tied round his neck with a string, or maybe emeralds—there's a stone for you! Emeralds are green as the sea by a sandy shore and bright as a cat's ...
— The Mutineers • Charles Boardman Hawes

... officer was more excited than he had ever been in the face of the enemy, for the present looked like a case in which his honor was at stake. He felt that it would be his ruin if the Vernon sailed without him. There had been some mistake in his orders, or in those of the commander of the store ship, and he was likely to be the sufferer for it. He ...
— Stand By The Union - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray—Afloat • Oliver Optic

... I am asking, but you have undertaken to follow up that brunette and find out the reason for her interest in me, and surely this is far, far more important—a man's life, the happiness of a family, my friend's happiness at stake, perhaps; for I am sure that no common cause, nothing but danger, illness, or death, could keep Gerald Trent from communicating with his parents and his promised wife. Drop the brunette and all connected with her, Mr. Masters, and give such time as you would have given to my affairs, and more if ...
— Against Odds - A Detective Story • Lawrence L. Lynch

... will curse your folly and obstinacy in ruining your homes, and destroying those dependent upon you in a struggle in which it was from the first certain that you could not win, and in which, even if you won, the amount at stake is not worth one day of the suffering which you are inflicting upon those ...
— Facing Death - The Hero of the Vaughan Pit. A Tale of the Coal Mines • G. A. Henty

... great poets of the last century, Musset and Verlaine, were two unhappy beings without any moral principle with which to stake up their flowers of thought—yet what magnificent and ...
— Letters of a Soldier - 1914-1915 • Anonymous

... possessed that old pole-cat to stake a placer claim jest there, 'stead o' somewhere else? The dirt won't pan color, will it?" asked Dad. "That's just what has bothered me, Dad. The only way that I can figure it out is that Williams got some inkling of the prospects ...
— Buffalo Roost • F. H. Cheley

... clear'd himself. We then drank a glass of wine, and took our leaves. At night the captain sent for Mr Cummins and me to sup with him; we were the only officers present with him: When I was seated, I said, Sir, I have my character at stake, from drawing back from your cock'd pistol; had I advanc'd, one of us must have dropt. The captain answer'd, Bulkeley, I do assure you the pistol was not design'd for you, but for another; for I knew the whole before. We then talk'd of ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 • Robert Kerr

... Hadagni,[3] took up tho body, and found it (as is supposed to be usual in cases of vampyrism) fresh, and entirely free from corruption, and emitting at the mouth, nose, and ears, pure and florid blood. Proof having been thus obtained, they resorted to the accustomed remedy. A stake was driven entirely through the heart and body of Arnold Paul, at which he is reported to have cried out as dreadfully as if he had been alive. This done, they cut off his head, burned his body, and threw the ashes into his grave. The same measures were adopted with the corses of ...
— The Vampyre; A Tale • John William Polidori

... the whole has a common connexion, and ends with one common catastrophe. But which of the actions of the four persons is the main action? In strength of passion, their endeavours are pretty nearly equal—in all the whole happiness of life is at stake; the action of Andromache has, however, the advantage in moral dignity, and Racine was therefore perfectly right in ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art - and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel trans John Black

... golden ounces flit before aching eyes! What faint crowing of wounded cocks! What tinkling of guitars and blowing of horns come upon the ear! Some, indeed, there be, who can look round upon their well-stored hacienda and easy-rolling carriages, and remember the day, when with threadbare coat, and stake of three modest ounces, they first courted Fortune's favours, and who, being then indigent, and enjoying an indifferent reputation, found themselves, at the conclusion of a few successive San Agustins, the fortunate proprietors ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon De La Barca

... sizzling in the ashes, as black and dirty as an old shoe. These last I at first thought were thrown away, but afterwards found that they were being cooked. Also a tremendous rib-piece was roasting before the fire, being impaled on an upright stake forced in and out between the ribs. There was a moose-hide stretched and curing on poles like ours, and quite a pile of cured skins close by. They had killed twenty-two moose within two months, but, as they could use but ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Issue 10, August, 1858 • Various

... we might have just a thought of question as to that zeal of ours, whether it was so noble after all. Nils was a man from the village who was anxious to get his field work done at least as quickly as any of his neighbours; his honour was at stake. And I followed him. Ay, even when he put on that temperance badge, it was, perhaps, as much as anything to get the Captain sober enough to see the fine work we had done. And here again I was with him. Moreover, I had perhaps a hope that Fruen, ...
— Wanderers • Knut Hamsun

... Army seemed at stake. Had mere business, such as the voting of over L50,000,000 for upkeep of Navy, been to the fore, benches would have been half empty. As it was, they were thronged. Over the crowded assembly hurtled that indescribable buzz of excitement ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 1, 1914 • Various

... four faithful peers or the four perfidious men. The infamous Vandamme and another were called Pair-siffles, the biased peers, or the biased pair, or (persiffles) men made objects of derision. It was thus the lower orders behaved while the existence of France was at stake. ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

... of a picture such as the Somme Film—do not call for a greater exercise of discretion, diplomacy and tact; for so many interests have to be taken into account; so much has to be left out, for so much is at stake. ...
— How I Filmed the War - A Record of the Extraordinary Experiences of the Man Who - Filmed the Great Somme Battles, etc. • Lieut. Geoffrey H. Malins

... another more serious objection is that the side doors and aisles are not of equal importance with the central, but mere adjuncts and dependencies, so that the architect who had misled the ignorant public into accepting so black a heresy would have deserved the stake, and would probably have gone to it. Even this suggestion of trinity is wanting in the transepts, which have only one aisle, and in the choir, which has five, as well as five or seven chapels, and, as far ...
— Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres • Henry Adams

... Andersson informs me, the natives largely use the seed of a grass of about the size of canary-seed, which they boil in water. They eat also the roots of certain reeds, and every one has read of the Bushmen prowling about and digging up with a fire-hardened stake various roots. Similar facts with respect to the collection of seeds of wild grasses in other parts of the world could be given. (9/7. For instance in both North and South America. Mr. Edgeworth 'Journal Proc. Linn. Soc.' vol 6 Bot. 1862 page 181 states that in the deserts of the ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - Volume I • Charles Darwin

... in the place of Isaac, whom his father Abraham was about to sacrifice, the Goddess Vesta also sent a heifer to be sacrificed in the place of Metella, daughter of Metellus: the Goddess Diana sent a hind in the place of Iphigenie when she was at the stake to be sacrificed to her, and by ...
— Superstition In All Ages (1732) - Common Sense • Jean Meslier

... off the angle, as above described, I measure 200 or 300 feet northtward, in the direction of the string, and compute the offset in feet and inches, set a stake in the ground, and drive a tack ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 344, August 5, 1882 • Various

... pieces—is it worth a rich gentleman's while to sell a cartload of firewood?" Neither of these alternatives having been adopted, and nobody wanting an empty boat-house, the clumsy mill boat, hitherto tied to a stake, and exposed to the worst that the weather could do to injure it, was now snugly sheltered under a roof, with empty lockers (once occupied by aquatic luxuries) gaping on either side ...
— The Guilty River • Wilkie Collins

... order to prevent the Count de Provence acknowledging this certificate as genuine, you must be prepared to place before him and the world other testimonials that Louis XVII. is not dead. This is a sacred offering which you must make to the manes of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, even if the stake were not a throne ...
— Marie Antoinette And Her Son • Louise Muhlbach

... knew you would shrink from, madame; but pardon me for saying that it is not your own life only, but those of your children that are at stake. When royal princes and dukes are unable to oppose these scoundrel Parisians, women and children may well bend before ...
— At Agincourt • G. A. Henty

... continuous anxiety, followed the events of the race, all unknowing that Janie was playing for a far higher stake than they realized, and that on the result of that race hung, not only the honour of St. Chad's, but the future of a human soul, capable of infinitely so much more than it ...
— The New Girl at St. Chad's - A Story of School Life • Angela Brazil

... her vision, dark-eyed and beautiful, came stealing down his dreams. She was his heaven, and if by any ladder known to man he might climb thereto, thither he would climb. And so he set his teeth and vowed that, Mrs. Quest or no Mrs. Quest, he would stake his fortune upon the hazard of the die, aye, and win, even if ...
— Colonel Quaritch, V.C. - A Tale of Country Life • H. Rider Haggard

... hadn't soldiered," he muttered as he saw Slim climbing out of a gulch, "he could have had a good little grub-stake for winter. Winter's going to come quick, the way the willows are turning black. Let it come. I've got to pull out, anyhow, as things are going. But"—his eyes kindled as he looked at the high bank into which his tunnel ran—"I certainly ...
— The Man from the Bitter Roots • Caroline Lockhart

... wise, but any benefit that may be derived from frightening students by dwelling upon the details of the dreadful punishment of vice is too often offset by awakening a curiosity and interest that might not be developed so early and is likely to set the thoughts of those whose benefit is at stake in a direction that will neither elevate their conversations with their fellows nor make more ...
— Sex-education - A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its - relation to human life • Maurice Alpheus Bigelow

... The lad had proven by repeated tests that he could swim faster on his left side then in any other position. He quickly flung himself over and used his arms and legs like one who knew fully the stake for ...
— The Hunters of the Ozark • Edward S. Ellis

... of yours, He makes it like a bridge from earth to heaven, With white-winged angels passing up and down; And, underneath the bridge, in a black stream, He puts the drowning face of the bad Prince Holding his wicked hands out, while a devil Stands on the bank and with a pointed stake Keeps him from landing— Ah, what's that? ...
— Collected Poems - Volume Two (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... these same people, suddenly animated by contrary sentiments of vengeance, imperiously demand an exemplary expiation and all possible reprisals. This sometimes goes as far as torture of the culprit or burning at the stake, as with the lynchers ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel

... comment. But he was willing to stake his life that the check from the canning company to Brauer was for a full premium without any 5-per-cent reduction, and that Brauer, himself, was withholding this alleged rebate and applying it to making up the deficits on the fire premiums ...
— Broken to the Plow • Charles Caldwell Dobie

... well for you," said the half-caste in a lower voice. "You have not so much at stake. It is likely that the happiness of my whole ...
— With Edged Tools • Henry Seton Merriman

... was a dreadful thing to differ with the Church—to rebel against the Pope. Dr Martin was a learned man, but he opined that he was following too closely in the steps of John Huss, and the Knight, his patron, knew that they led to the stake. He had no wish that any one under his spiritual charge should go there. As to the Scriptures, he had read but very small portions of them, and he could not tell how far Dr Martin's opinions were formed from them. ...
— Count Ulrich of Lindburg - A Tale of the Reformation in Germany • W.H.G. Kingston

... heard the baying of dogs, and he guessed that they were being set upon his track. In that case he could not hope to escape them, and might just as well await them where he was. He picked out a heavy stake from the hedge, and he sat down moodily waiting, in a very dangerous temper, for what ...
— The Last Galley Impressions and Tales - Impressions and Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle

... with a look expressive of eternal renunciation. She loves him, sir; and there is no selfishness in her heart and never has been. For all her frail appearance and the mildness of her temper, she is like flint where principle is involved or the welfare of those she loves is at stake. My daughter may die from shock or shame, but she will never cloud your son's prospects with the obloquy which has settled over her own. Judge Ostrander, I am not worthy of such a child, but such ...
— Dark Hollow • Anna Katharine Green

... Milverton, and there are hundreds in this great city who turn white at his name. No one knows where his grip may fall, for he is far too rich and far too cunning to work from hand to mouth. He will hold a card back for years in order to play it at the moment when the stake is best worth winning. I have said that he is the worst man in London, and I would ask you how could one compare the ruffian who in hot blood bludgeons his mate with this man, who methodically and at his leisure tortures the ...
— The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Magazine Edition • Arthur Conan Doyle

... wisely done as soon as the plant is set, though some growers delay doing so until the fruit is well set, claiming that the disturbance of staking, tying and pruning tends to hasten the ripening of the fruit. The plant is then tied up, the tying material being wrapped once about the stake and then looped about the plant so as to prevent slipping on the stake or choking the stem of the plant as it enlarges. Raffia is largely used and is one of the best tying materials, but short pieces of any soft, cheap string can be used. ...
— Tomato Culture: A Practical Treatise on the Tomato • William Warner Tracy

... Churchman; for naturally he could not say the same of other members of the same class and family. He was shaken out of his strong opinions; but it is doubtful how far this was good for him, for he was a man of warlike disposition, and not to have something which he could go to the stake for—something which he could think the devil's own stronghold to assail, was a drawback to him, and cramped his mental development; but he was happy in his home with his pretty Ursula, which is ...
— Phoebe, Junior • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant

... bate ye fifty poun' A'm betther rairt nor you! Houl' an'!— A'll bate ye a hundher'—two hundher', if ye lek, an' stake the money down ...
— Such is Life • Joseph Furphy

... when an unfortunate woman was accused of Witchcraft she was tied neck and heels and thrown into a pond of Water: if she drowned, it was agreed that she was no witch; if she swam, she was immediately tied to a stake and burnt alive. But who ever heard that our pious ancestors ducked women for scolding?" This writer is much mistaken; for it is well known that in England (and perhaps in this country in early times) ...
— The Olden Time Series, Vol. 5: Some Strange and Curious Punishments • Henry M. Brooks

... were telling him he stood some twenty thousand dollars behind it, and that, too, when he was confronted by two imperative calls for spot cash, one for ten thousand to go to Warrior Gap, another for a sum almost as big to "stake" a man who never yet had turned an honest penny, yet held the quartermaster where he dare not say so—where indeed he dare not ...
— Warrior Gap - A Story of the Sioux Outbreak of '68. • Charles King

... control of his temper as well as of his sword—though by this time he felt sure that it was another agent of the Duke of Vallombreuse's he had to deal with, and that his life, not his cloak, was the matter at stake. At last Lampourde, who had begun to entertain an immense respect for his valiant opponent, could restrain his curiosity no ...
— Captain Fracasse • Theophile Gautier

... ready to stake anything that Lionel is your son. He has the same look and features as Miss Maud, more ruddy to be sure. Though I never thought him much like Percy, he greatly resembles Rupert, and he has often told me he remembers his mother, and the tall gentleman he supposed to be his father, who ...
— Hendricks the Hunter - The Border Farm, a Tale of Zululand • W.H.G. Kingston

... A blind and feeble old monarch, Muley Albohacan, King of Granada, ordered the massacre of a number of children by his first marriage; Ziska destroyed 550 churches and monasteries in Germany alone; and, for attempting reforms in religion, Huss and Jerome of Prague were cruelly burnt alive at the stake. These and similar horrors of those distressful times, which find fit counterparts in revolting incidents in the Annals, could not but deeply affect the soul of a man ardently loving liberty and devoted to humanity as, unquestionably, was the forger of ...
— Tacitus and Bracciolini - The Annals Forged in the XVth Century • John Wilson Ross

... not a trespass at all,' said McEvoy. 'I'll make it a burglary and forcible entry, and if he recovers at all, I'll stake my reputation I transport him for ...
— Lord Kilgobbin • Charles Lever

... taller turned into gold. They could load up a big ship in a single day, they had so many Indians to help." And he proceeded to tell of his own lucky find: "A lot of that holy taller was lost 'n' fergot, nobuddy knows how many years. One night I went up into the grass beyant the mission to stake out my hosses; an' when I druv the fust stake it went way deawn, like 'twas in soft mud. I jes' yanked it up: half on 't was kivered with grease. The evening was cool, but the day had been brilin', an' now mebbe ye kin guess how I found my taller mine. 'Twas a leetle ...
— A Truthful Woman in Southern California • Kate Sanborn

... at three cushions, fifty points up, for a stake, 'Tween the base-ball man and Carter, and it wan't an even break, For the odds were all in money and the playing even up, But the horse that packs the top weight does not ...
— A Ball Player's Career - Being the Personal Experiences and Reminiscensces of Adrian C. Anson • Adrian C. Anson

... encouragement; but at the crucial moment he always held back. So much was at stake, and it was so essential that his first choice should be decisive. He dreaded stupidity, timidity, intolerance. The imaginative eye, the furrowed brow, were what he sought. He must reveal himself ...
— The Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton, Part 1 (of 10) • Edith Wharton

... "She has more at stake than any of us. She has worked day and night on this case. It was she who aroused Dr. Bernstein's interest and persuaded him to collect the evidence ...
— The Third Degree - A Narrative of Metropolitan Life • Charles Klein and Arthur Hornblow

... her with his teeth and claws, but he held fast to the bough, roaring loudly and striking his breast. Under other circumstances I think that I should have put a considerable distance between myself and the beast, but the life of a fellow-creature was at stake. Summoning all the coolness I could command, I reloaded and then shouted to the other girls to come back and take their companion away. They all seemed to dread approaching the monster. I was afraid that, should I go under the bough, he might spring on ...
— The Two Supercargoes - Adventures in Savage Africa • W.H.G. Kingston

... is only one among hundreds that might be stated, in which the ruin of many a promising young man has been accomplished, by alluring him to play cards for amusement, and then gradually leading him on to stake first small sums, which he is permitted to win, and then he is persuaded to go on, till he has not a farthing left. There is a set of men, in all parts of the country, who make a business of gambling, ...
— Anecdotes for Boys • Harvey Newcomb

... power of wealth under the thin guise of the constitutional protection of property. He saw the Army which he had sworn to serve faithfully becoming prostituted by this same power, and used at times for purposes of intimidation and petty conquests where the interests of wealth were at stake. He saw the great city where luxury, dominant and defiant, existed largely by grace of exploitation— exploitation of men, ...
— Philip Dru: Administrator • Edward Mandell House

... Johnston had been goaded into a precipitate and ill-judged attack by the adverse criticisms of a portion of the press. No one who knew aught of that chivalric and true soldier would for an instant have believed he could lend an ear to such considerations, with so vast a stake in view; and the more reasonable theory came to be accepted—that he desired to strike Grant before the heavy columns that Buell was ...
— Four Years in Rebel Capitals - An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death • T. C. DeLeon

... golden-haired child; and I was not so much surprised at her grandfather's doting fondness—a fondness entirely reciprocated, it seemed, by the little girl. It struck me, albeit, that it was a perilous thing for a man of Dutton's vehement, fiery nature to stake again, as he evidently had done, his all of life and happiness upon one frail existence. An illustration of my thought or fear occurred just after we had finished tea. A knock was heard at the outer-door, and presently a man's voice, in quarrelling, drunken remonstrance with the servant ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 440 - Volume 17, New Series, June 5, 1852 • Various

... with regard to the nature of the First Cause; then an Albigense hurled from his rocks because he refused to part with the leaves of his old Bible; now a Dutch peasant woman, walking serenely to the stake because she refused to bow her head before two crossed rods; then a Servetus burnt by Protestant Calvin at Geneva; or a Spinoza cut off from his tribe and people because he could see nothing but God anywhere; and then it was an ...
— Woman and Labour • Olive Schreiner

... burned on my arms and shoulders for not standing erect. The flesh was deep in some places, and the agony I suffered was intolerable. I thought of the stories the Abbess used to tell me years before about the martyrs who were burned at the stake. But I had not a martyr's faith, and I could not imitate their patience and resignation. The sores made on these occasions were long in healing, and to this day I bear upon my person the scars ...
— Life in the Grey Nunnery at Montreal • Sarah J Richardson

... wouldn't let me, dear," said Ben more gently, flushing and feeling his first qualm. "I would stake my life that she is as beautiful within as without and that you would have a treasure as well as I. It wasn't deserting you. I was thinking of you. I felt she was worthy of you and ...
— In Apple-Blossom Time - A Fairy-Tale to Date • Clara Louise Burnham

... "I voted for the Bankruptcy Court Bill," he said in answer to an inquisitive constituent. "There were points in that Bill of which I did not approve, and I only refrained from stating those points because an office of my own was at stake." When this source fell dry he was for a while a poor man; for a member of Parliament, who has others to think of besides himself, is anything but rich on sixty or seventy pounds a quarter as the produce ...
— Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay • George Otto Trevelyan

... There's no use joining a country club," Bert said musingly, "unless you can do the thing decently. It means signing checks for tea, and cocktails, and keeping a car, and the Lord knows what! It means tennis rackets and golf sticks and tips and playing bridge for a stake. It ...
— Undertow • Kathleen Norris

... be adapted to bless the world. But I come not here to argue upon religion. I come to speak about yourself. You are in danger, my dear friend; your station, your honor, your office, your very life is at stake. Consider what you have done. An important commission was intrusted to you, upon the execution of which you set out. It was expected that you would return bringing important information. But instead of this you come back and inform the general that you have gone over to the enemy, ...
— The Martyr of the Catacombs - A Tale of Ancient Rome • Anonymous

... made of cement. The night the new home stood, a skeleton of joists and rafters, gleaming whitely on the banks of Loon Lake, the Harvester went to the bridge crossing Singing Water and slowly came up the driveway to see how the work appeared. He caught his breath as he advanced. He had intended to stake out generous rooms, but this, compared with the cabin, seemed ...
— The Harvester • Gene Stratton Porter

... think of the knight who shouted to his servant Kasperle, "Fear my thread!" (Zwirn), when what he intended to say was, "Fear my anger!" (Zorn). Or of that same Kasperle, when he gave his wife a tremendous drubbing with a stake, and then inquired, "Want another ounce ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... decision, that, for the time being, at least, poker was robbed of its charm, faro had become a game of no consequence whatever, and gambling generally, with all its subtleties as he understood them, was no longer worth while. He had decided upon a game with a higher stake than any United States currency could afford. It was a game of life and death. James, "Lord" James, as he contemptuously declared, must go. There was no room for him in the same district as Wild Bill ...
— The Twins of Suffering Creek • Ridgwell Cullum

... himself at once, for he will never do any good. I don't know that any of us are inclined that way, but I think it would be a good plan to enter into a sort of agreement with each other that, as long as we are in partnership, none of us shall enter a saloon or stake a dollar ...
— Captain Bayley's Heir: - A Tale of the Gold Fields of California • G. A. Henty

... single one of the ninety-six last centuries contained numerically more citizens than the entire first class. Thus, no one was excluded from his right of voting, yet the preponderance of votes was secured to those who had the deepest stake in the welfare of the State. Moreover, with reference to the accensi, velati, trumpeters, hornblowers, proletarii[322] * ...
— Cicero's Tusculan Disputations - Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... generally speaking, was strikingly handsome. He had been struck on his right leg, above the knee, about mid-way the thigh, by a cannon ball, which had cut off the limb, except a small strip of skin. He was lying on his back, at full length, his right arm straight up in the air, rigid as a stake, and his fist tightly clinched. His eyes were wide open, but their expression was calm and natural. The shock and the loss of blood doubtless brought death to his relief in a short time. As I stood looking at the unfortunate ...
— The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865 • Leander Stillwell

... bear," said he, as I arrived. "Two-legged, you see. And he had a hawss of his own." There was a stake driven down where an animal had been picketed ...
— The Virginian - A Horseman Of The Plains • Owen Wister

... Captain proves himself to be! To me a life is a life, a particle of the thing divine; to him a life is a unit, and a half-maimed and probably dying seaman is as nothing in the scales when the safety of a U-boat is at stake. The seamen are numbered in their tens of thousands, the U-boats in their tens. The steamer had hit us once, luckily only in the casing, a second hit might well have punctured the pressure hull, and our fate in ...
— The Diary of a U-boat Commander • Anon

... place Mrs. Lincoln in a better light before the world. A breach of trust—if breach it can be called—of this kind is always excusable. My own character, as well as the character of Mrs. Lincoln, is at stake, since I have been intimately associated with that lady in the most eventful periods of her life. I have been her confidante, and if evil charges are laid at her door, they also must be laid at mine, since I have been a party to all her ...
— Behind the Scenes - or, Thirty years a slave, and Four Years in the White House • Elizabeth Keckley

... have remembered that young people read a ton of meaning into a pound of words. Of course, I am not guilty, Miss Starr. Professor Duke and Miss Adams can swear to that. They call me Goody-goody. They say I am an old-fashioned apostle, and they accuse me of wanting to burn them both at the stake! Now, sit ...
— Prudence of the Parsonage • Ethel Hueston

... assassinated each other in their theological rancour "of wild beasts," which encouraged the wicked folly of the Crusades—especially the Children's Crusades—and the shameful murders of the Manicheans, the Albigenses, and the Huguenots; which burned at the stake thousands and thousands of poor 'witches' and 'heretics'; which has hardly ever spoken a generous word in favor or defence of the animals; which in modern times has supported vivisection as against the latter, Capitalism and Commercialism ...
— Pagan & Christian Creeds - Their Origin and Meaning • Edward Carpenter

... women, his wife and daughter, and the mother of the late Toutaha. These, together with the canoes, I resolved to detain, and to send the chief to Otoo, thinking he would have weight enough with him to obtain the return of the musket, as his own property was at stake. He was, however, very unwilling to go on this embassy, and made various excuses, one of which was his being of too low a rank for this honourable employment; saying he was no Earee, but a Manahouna, ...
— A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World, Volume 1 • James Cook

... railroad interests in the State were combined; and while they had plenty of money with which to carry out their designs, the chances were small indeed for those members of the legislature who were struggling for simple justice, and who had no pecuniary interests at stake. ...
— A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career. Life of Hon. Phineas T. • Joel Benton

... Martin laughing heartily, as his comrade advanced to the edge of the lake and watched his opportunity. "Mind, your credit as an expert hunter is at stake." ...
— Martin Rattler • R.M. Ballantyne

... bewitching, as even Flora Schuyler, who fancied she understood the grimness in the man's face, felt just then. He, however, looked away across the prairie, and the movement had its significance to one of the company, who, having less at stake, was the more observant. When he turned again, however, he ...
— The Cattle-Baron's Daughter • Harold Bindloss

... resided much at the court of his brother-in-law, Henry I. He associated, when Earl, with nobles of Anglo-Norman race and language, such as Moreville, Umfraville, Somerville, Gospatric, Bruce, Balliol, and others; men with a stake in both countries, England and Scotland. On coming to the throne, David endowed these men with charters of lands in Scotland. With him came a cadet of the great Anglo-Breton House of FitzAlan, who obtained the hereditary office of Seneschal or Steward of Scotland. His patronymic, FitzAlan, ...
— A Short History of Scotland • Andrew Lang

... under the glass roof of the big passenger shed, for word had gone out that another train coming across the bridge was loaded with more troops, and there was a fascination in watching these prospective victims of the stake and scalping-knife. It had been a fierce campaign thus far, and one in which the losses and vicissitudes both (there are no honors to speak of) had been borne principally by the cavalry, but now the "doughboys" ...
— Under Fire • Charles King



Words linked to "Stake" :   play, pot, put on the line, double up, pool, jurisprudence, visual signal, law, right, undivided right, kitty, instrument of execution, fee, parlay, equity, secure, gamble, security interest, starting post, reversion, stake driver, pierce, share, at stake, fasten, undivided interest, portion, mark, lay on the line, part, jeopardize, interest, terminable interest, hazard, controlling interest, ante, insurable interest, fix, percentage, winning post, jackpot, vested interest, wager, kill, risk



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