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Awl   Listen
noun
Awl  n.  A pointed instrument for piercing small holes, as in leather or wood; used by shoemakers, saddlers, cabinetmakers, etc. The blade is differently shaped and pointed for different uses, as in the brad awl, saddler's awl, shoemaker's awl, etc.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Awl" Quotes from Famous Books



... Cobblers-Awl, n. bird-name. The word is a provincial English name for the Avocet. In Tasmania, the name is applied to a Spine-Bill (q.v.) from the shape of ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris

... might have been hammered out by the emigrants. One of these nails is so firmly imbedded in rust alongside a screw, that the two are inseparable. Metallic buttons are found well preserved, a sewing awl is quite plainly distinguishable, and an old-fashioned, quaint-looking bridle-bit retains much of its original form. Some of the more delicate and perishable articles present the somewhat remarkable appearance of having increased in size by the accumulations of rust and earth in which they are ...
— History of the Donner Party • C.F. McGlashan

... I stuck my 'ead in this 'ouse, I knowed as summat was wrong in my line, and I ses to myself: Wot oh, 'e ain't such an awl-mighty liar, arter all—that's drains! An' drains it was, strike me dead—arskin' ...
— The Servant in the House • Charles Rann Kennedy

... the right side, and penetrating the stomach to the extent of two inches at a point about two inches below the xiphoid cartilage. The stomachal contents, consisting of bacon, cabbage, and cider, were evacuated. Shortly after the reception of the injury, an old soldier sewed up the wound with an awl, needle, and wax-thread; Archer did not see the patient until forty-eight hours afterward, at which time he cleansed and dressed the wound. After a somewhat protracted illness the patient recovered, notwithstanding the extent of injury and the primitive ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... I had a great awl that I kept in the window, the which awl I saw fall down ye chimney into ye ashes. I bid ye boy put ye same awl in ye cupboard which I saw done, and ye door shut too. When ye same awl came down ye chimney again in our sight, and I ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 4 • Various

... would call in the leading men of the village or neighborhood to witness the occurrence. And he would take his servant out to the door of the home, and standing him up against the door-jamb would pierce the lobe of his ear through with an awl. I suppose like a shoemaker's awl. Then the man became not his slave, but his bond-slave, forever. It was a personal surrender of himself to his master; it was voluntary; it was for love's sake; it was for service; it was after a trial; it was ...
— Quiet Talks on Service • S. D. Gordon

... of the skin, as well as in destroying lice and other vermin that infest animals of different kinds, which form the live stock of the farmer. It has also been found useful in its crude state in destroying insects on fruit trees. Take a small awl, and pierce sloping, through the rind, and into part of the wood of the branch, but not to the heart or pith of it; and pour in a small drop or two of the quicksilver, and stop it up with a small wooden plug made to fit the ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... brewing vessels, And here are his dray and his flings; Here are Hewson's (36) awl and his bristles, With diverse other odd things: And what is the price doth belong To all these matters before ye? I'll sell them all for an old song, And so I do end my story. ...
— Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 • Charles Mackay

... interval of silence, while Charlie rummaged in his bureau drawers. At length he unearthed the little case from a box containing an odd assortment of light hardware, broken knives, stray nails, an awl or two, and a collection ...
— In Blue Creek Canon • Anna Chapin Ray

... declaration on the true faith of a Christian. Any man would rather have his shoes mended by a heretical cobbler than by a person who had subscribed all the thirty-nine articles, but had never handled an awl. Men act thus, not because they are indifferent to religion, but because they do not see what religion has to do with the mending of their shoes. Yet religion has as much to do with the mending of shoes as with the budget and ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... short knife or a miniature head-axe and an awl. With the former the operator scrapes the outer surface, and then splits the tube into strips of the desired width and thickness. A certain number of these strips, which are to be used for decoration, are rubbed with oil, and are held in the smoke of burning pine or of rice-straw until a ...
— The Tinguian - Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe • Fay-Cooper Cole

... Latour, sharply, and his steel gray eyes were suddenly fixed on Sabatier as though they went straight to his soul with the penetration of a shoemaker's awl. "She is to be delivered to me, and you and the others had best forget that you have been ...
— The Light That Lures • Percy Brebner

... but with him it was something almost tangible, real, and akin to actual life. A late author, the lamented Vaughan, thus fancies him: "Behold him early in his study, with bolted door. The boy must see to the shop to-day, no sublunary care of awl or leather, customers and groschen, must check the rushing flood of thought. The sunshine streams in emblem, to his high-raised phantasy, of a more glorious light. As he writes, the thin cheeks are flushed, ...
— History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology • John F. Hurst

... cottagers' fires of smoking peat turves (period of hibernation). Indoor: discussion in tepid security of unsolved historical and criminal problems: lecture of unexpurgated exotic erotic masterpieces: house carpentry with toolbox containing hammer, awl nails, screws, tintacks, gimlet, tweezers, bullnose plane and turnscrew. Might he become a gentleman farmer of field ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... presentation of a human face, which are stated to have been found in the interior of the fort. No objects of metal or fragments of pottery were discovered in course of the excavations, and of bone there were only two small pointed objects and an awl having a perforation at one end. The majority of the following worked objects of stone, bone, and shell are so remarkable and archaic in character that their presence in a fort, which cannot be placed earlier ...
— The Clyde Mystery - a Study in Forgeries and Folklore • Andrew Lang

... ould ch est girth wh ale thus sh ake ch ange thin wh eat thine sh ame ch alk thick wh eel there sh ape ch ain think wh ack their sh are ch ance throat wh ip them sh ark ch arge thorn wh irl though sh arp ch ap three wh et thou sh awl ch apel third wh ey sh ed ch apter thaw wh isper sh ear ch arm wh ...
— How to Teach Phonics • Lida M. Williams

... apprenticeship would be over, the more clearly did it appear to him that he was very fond of Joanna, and that she must be his wife; and when he thought of this, a smile came upon his lips, and he drew the thread twice as fast as before, and pressed his foot hard against the knee-strap. He ran the awl far into his finger, but he did not care for that. He determined not to play the dumb lover, as the two gingerbread cakes had done: the story should teach ...
— What the Moon Saw: and Other Tales • Hans Christian Andersen

... Fr. broche, originally an awl or bodkin; a spit is sometimes called a broach, and hence the phrase "to broach a barrel"; see BROKER), a term now used to denote a clasp or fastener for the dress, provided with a pin, having a hinge or spring at one end, and a catch or loop at ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various

... and her grace forefend!" cried he of the awl and lapstone, whose pipe having unaccountably been extinguished, was just in the act of being thrust down into the red and roaring billets when he beheld a blue flame hovering on them; a spiral wreath of light shot upwards, and the log was reduced ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 (of 2) • John Roby

... rather remain bond than go out free. Surely when Christ calls you to liberty, you will not turn from Him to the tyrannous masters whom you have served, and, like the Hebrew slave, let them fasten you to their door-posts with their awl through your ear. Do you hug your ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren

... craft," answered the officer; "but casting in thy lot with ours, doubt not that thou shalt be set beyond thine awl, and ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott

... that I live by, is the AWL: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor woman's matters, but with-al, I am indeed, Sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, ...
— Characters of Shakespeare's Plays • William Hazlitt

... merit have raised above his natural place an aspirant to high social position. Can it be expected that such a one when dining with a duchess shall speak of his father's small shop, or bring into the light of day his grandfather's cobbler's awl? And yet it is difficult to be altogether silent! It may not be necessary for any of us to be always talking of our own parentage. We may be generally reticent as to our uncles and aunts, and may drop even our brothers and sisters in our ordinary conversation. ...
— The Prime Minister • Anthony Trollope

... "in the subtlest equilibrium, clinging with its hooked talons to the slippery surface of the leaf"; we watch all the details of its methods and the progress of its labours. We see the flexed leaf assume the vertical under the awl-stroke which the insect applies to the pedicle, "when, partially deprived of sap, the leaf becomes more flexible, more malleable; it is in a sense partly paralysed, only half alive." Then we follow the rolling process; ...
— Fabre, Poet of Science • Dr. G.V. (C.V.) Legros

... intervals a public meeting was held, at which the governor and the citizens of Quebec were present, and the pupils were questioned on religious subjects. The most successful received a reward at the hands of the governor, consisting of either a knife or an awl. They were called upon to kiss the governor's hand, and to make a bow ...
— The Makers of Canada: Champlain • N. E. Dionne

... Robin," and so on. Try to determine the true colours of the birds and record these. Also note the shape and approximate length of the bill. This, for example, may be short and conical like a Canary's, awl-shaped like the bill of a Warbler, or very long and slender like that of a Snipe. By failing to observe these simple rules the learner may be in despair when he tries to find out the name of his strange bird by examining a bird book, ...
— The Bird Study Book • Thomas Gilbert Pearson

... the maze of loose threads takes a sacklike form, the bottom of the nest thickens, till some morning you see the movement of the bird inside it; her beak comes through the sides from within, like a needle or an awl, seizes a loose hair or thread, and jerks it back through the wall and tightens it. It is a regular stitching or quilting process. The course of any particular thread or fiber is as irregular and haphazard as if it were the work of the wind or the waves. There is plan, ...
— Under the Maples • John Burroughs

... house. At one end of the room he had come upon what to him was a very interesting heap of their no less ancient possessions. Most of the beautiful old pottery had been smashed, but among the fragments Lennon found several ceremonial stones and tablets, a bone awl, many obsidian arrowheads, and ...
— Bloom of Cactus • Robert Ames Bennet

... sees the beads assume a deep red colour, to which succeeds a paler or whitish red, or they become pointed at the upper extremity; on which the fire is removed and the pot suffered to cool gradually: at length it is removed, the beads taken out, the clay in the hollow of them picked out with an awl or needle, and it is then fit for use. The beads thus formed are in great demand among the Indians, and used as pendants to their ears and hair, and are sometimes worn round ...
— History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. • Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

... she had a very beautiful foot and leg; and the Cobler in taking her measure was conscious of sinful thoughts. And he had often heard it said in the Holy Evangel, that if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, rather than sin. So, as soon as the woman had departed, he took the awl that he used in stitching, and drove it into his eye and destroyed it. And this is the way he came to lose his eye. So you can judge what a holy, just, and ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... plying the needle and awl vigorously. He looked up only for a second at a time during the next few moments, but what he saw impressed him very favorably. Mrs. Prency was not a young woman, but apparently she had a clear conscience and a ...
— All He Knew - A Story • John Habberton

... Revolution did not find chemists necessary, he considered that the Republic did not need writers, painters and musicians. These were all useless individuals, and the Republic would give them a little surprise by putting a labourer's spade or a shoemaker's awl into their hands. George Sand considered this idea not only ...
— George Sand, Some Aspects of Her Life and Writings • Rene Doumic

... floor. Having so done—and with a flourish—he now continued: "Now I'll show you if you'll watch me," and he began showing Cowperwood how the strips were to be laced through the apertures on either side, cut, and fastened with little hickory pegs. This done, he brought a forcing awl, a small hammer, a box of pegs, and a pair of clippers. After several brief demonstrations with different strips, as to how the geometric forms were designed, he allowed Cowperwood to take the matter in hand, watching over his ...
— The Financier • Theodore Dreiser

... there is not such a fine one nor so carefully finished, which accounts for its having been more rarely copied. If we examine the knives, awls, scrapers, and saws, we come to the same conclusion, although comparison is not so easy. "A knife is always a knife, an awl is always an awl," remarks M. Cartailhac; "they were made at every period, and their resemblance to each other ...
— Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples • The Marquis de Nadaillac

... This species grows fairly well in some parts of England and Ireland, and is a curious shrub with awl-shaped leaves, and, like the other members of the family, an abundant producer of flowers. It thrives best as a wall plant, and when favourably situated a height of 12 ...
— Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs • A. D. Webster

... replied Donald. "But he won't make anything by it. He hid those papers in the shop within a day or two, I am sure, for I had my hand in the place where he put them, feeling for a brad-awl I dropped day before yesterday, and I know they were not there then. But he is used up, anyhow, whether we find the box or not, for he tells one story and Captain Shivernock another; and I think Captain Patterdale believes what I say now. But the race comes off to-day, and ...
— The Yacht Club - or The Young Boat-Builder • Oliver Optic

... old-fashioned play on the words "awl" and "all," and means, of course, packing up all ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward

... case of the beechnuts, what is it that lies dormant in the substance of the nuts and becomes alive, under the influence of the warmth and moisture of spring, and puts out a radicle that pierces the dry leaves like an awl? The pebbles, though they contain the same chemical elements, do not become active ...
— The Breath of Life • John Burroughs

... rye, a kind of grain. ow'er, one who owes. lead, a metal. adds, joins to. led, did lead. adz, a joiner's tool. read, perused. ale, a liquor. red, a color. ail, to feel pain. read, to peruse. ate, did eat. reed, a plant. eight, twice four. all, the whole. ant, an insect. awl, a sharp instrument. ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey

... necessity of maintaining unspotted the moral purity of the Court. Lord M's pupil considered that dear Albert was strait-laced, and, in a brisk Anglo-German missive, set forth her own views. "I like Lady A. very much," she told him, "only she is a little strict awl particular, and too severe towards others, which is not right; for I think one ought always to be indulgent towards other people, as I always think, if we had not been well taken care of, we might also have gone astray. That is always my feeling. Yet it is always right to ...
— Queen Victoria • Lytton Strachey

... Peere, His Breeches cost him but a Crowne, He held them Six pence all to deere, With that he cal'd the Tailor Lowne: He was a wight of high Renowne, And thou art but of low degree: 'Tis Pride that pulls the Country downe, And take thy awl'd Cloake about thee. Some ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... and pointing to each, we learned, after he understood us, that one was named Wutchee, and the other Wunchee. The meanings of these words I have no need to translate: they were decidedly significant, and amused us a good deal. For sewing the hides together they used an awl of bone. The thread, which was of the sinew of some animal, was thrust through the awl-holes like a shoemaker's waxed-end, and drawn tight. When they had finished, Kit gave Wutchee (or Wunchee, for the life of me I couldn't tell which) a half-dozen pins from a round pin-ball ...
— Left on Labrador - or, The cruise of the Schooner-yacht 'Curlew.' as Recorded by 'Wash.' • Charles Asbury Stephens

... pit dwellers prepared their feasts, and bones of the Celtic ox (bos longifrons), pig, red deer, goat, dog, and hare or rabbit were found near it. One of the bones had evidently been bitten by teeth. The pit dwellers also practised some domestic industries, as Dr. Stevens found a needle, an awl or bodkin, and fragments of pointed bone, probably used for sewing skins together. A rude spindle-whorl shows that they knew something of weaving, and two bored stones were evidently buttons or dress-fasteners. A large supply of flint implements, scrapers, and arrow-heads, ...
— English Villages • P. H. Ditchfield

... fancies. The Germans always showed heat when they found a big service clasp-knife hung about a captured Englishman's neck on a lanyard, calling it a barbarous weapon because of the length of the blade and long sharp brad-awl which folded into a slot at the back of the handle; but an equally grim bit of cutlery in a Bavarian's bootleg seemed to them an entirely proper tool for a soldier ...
— Paths of Glory - Impressions of War Written At and Near the Front • Irvin S. Cobb

... for the wonders these shears have to show, you find that on one handle is a hammer-head, and that they can be used as a hammer. Close to the hammer-head a screw-driver is arranged. At the point of the shears is an awl for boring holes; and, most practical of all, the scissors when they are opened out ...
— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 20, March 25, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

... in the jubilee year, must go out alone, leaving their wives which their masters had given them, and their children by these wives, (if any,) behind them, as their masters' possession. If, however, they chose to remain with their wives and children, the ear of the servant was bored with an awl to the door-post, and his ...
— The Sable Cloud - A Southern Tale With Northern Comments (1861) • Nehemiah Adams

... slab of slatelike rock, with a sharp iron awl; and, reckoning the present day as about October first, agreed that every waking-time they would ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England

... servant thump on the floor. Thump, they go, and thump—dully, deformedly. My servant has shown me her feet. The instep has been broken upward into a bony cushion. The big toe is pointed as an awl. The small toes are folded under the cushioned instep. Only the heel is untouched. The thing is white and bloodless with ...
— Profiles from China • Eunice Tietjens

... (awl-shaped).—Stem erect, cylindrical, even below, channelled and tubercled above, about 2 in. in diameter. Joints long and branch-like, with tufts of short, white hair on the apices of the tubercles, and ...
— Cactus Culture For Amateurs • W. Watson

... CRISPINS will make him fits which are not convulsions, and will sew in a way which shall produce no crop of corns, and remind him, by the neatness of their work, of Lovely PEGGY, it is the intention of the Senor PUNCHINELLO to patronize the Native American awl altogether. ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 17, July 23, 1870 • Various

... I sez in ther fust place. I jest knowed he dassen't raise a hand tew hurt me, as he threatened, 'cause Lina keers fur even ther leetle finger o' my hand; an' she war ther apple o' his eye. An' shore I feels as it's agoin' tew be awl right, ef so be I kin on'y git a few words wid ther ole man, face ...
— The Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods - The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol • Herbert Carter

... and with dirty daylight cluttering up the cluttered room, the alarm-clock, full of heinous vigor, bored like an awl into ...
— Humoresque - A Laugh On Life With A Tear Behind It • Fannie Hurst

... had plaited enough to begin the soles, and the following day, having bought a curved awl for the price of one sou, some thread for one sou, a piece of ribbon for the same price, a small piece of rough canvas for four sous, in all seven sous, which was all that she could spend if she did not wish to go without bread on the Saturday, she tried to make a sole like those worn on shoes. ...
— Nobody's Girl - (En Famille) • Hector Malot

... propose to consult Fishin' Jimmy on the subject. But I was wiser than he knew. Jimmy looked at the specimen brought as an aid to identification. It was dry and flattened, and as unlike a living, growing plant as are generally the specimens from an herbarium. But it showed the awl-shaped leaves, and thread-like stalk with its tiny round seed-vessels, like those of our common shepherd's-purse, and Jimmy knew it at once. "There's a dreffle lot o' that peppergrass out in deep water there, jest where I ...
— Fishin' Jimmy • Annie Trumbull Slosson

... He was a native of Elmbrook, and knew his place when Susan Winters was giving orders. "Awl ...
— Treasure Valley • Marian Keith

... Wid one drink like dat in me when I was fightin' in France, de ole guv'ment wouldn't need no mo' soldiers. I seed de night ob de big wind what blowed New Awl'uns clean up de Mississippi River. I know'd a mule what couldn't live in de mountains 'count o' kickin' 'em over, but las' night when you was goin' good, I says, 'If a mule married a cyclone an' had a boy, he'd be you.' 'Hoof ...
— Lady Luck • Hugh Wiley

... called Sigismund Urbanitch, a Pole. He used to get into a muddle over every lesson. He would begin explaining some theory, get in a tangle, and turn crimson all over and race up and down the class-room as though someone were sticking an awl in his back, then he would blow his nose half a dozen times and begin to cry. But you know we were magnanimous to him, we pretended not to see it. 'What is it, Sigismund Urbanitch?' we used to ask him. 'Have you got toothache?' And what a set of young ruffians, ...
— The Cook's Wedding and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... a little dagger, and carried it to the lady Belerma, as his friend when at the point of death had commanded him. He said in reply that they spoke the truth in every respect except as to the dagger, for it was not a dagger, nor little, but a burnished poniard sharper than an awl." ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... Indian informed them that the route by which Mr. Hunt had crossed the Rocky Mountains was very bad and circuitous, and that he knew one much shorter and easier. Mr. Stuart urged him to accompany them as guide, promising to reward him with a pistol with powder and ball, a knife, an awl, some blue beads, a blanket, and a looking-glass. Such a catalogue of riches was too tempting to be resisted; besides the poor Snake languished after the prairies; he was tired, he said, of salmon, and longed for buffalo meat, and to have a grand buffalo hunt beyond the mountains. ...
— Astoria - Or, Anecdotes Of An Enterprise Beyond The Rocky Mountains • Washington Irving

... was seated with an awl in his hand, just going to work. The robber saluted him, bidding him good-morrow; and perceiving that he was old, said, "Honest man, you begin to work very early: is it possible that one of your age can see so well? I question, even if it were somewhat lighter, whether ...
— Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know • Various

... enlightened view of the prevailing condition of things will deny. True, she may not wield the axe or guide the plough, braced by the invigorating air, for hers is the wearisome task, and the one which requires the most skill to attend to the complicated machinery within doors; she may not handle the awl or the plane for "ten hours a day," with but a small tax on the intellectual, but by her perpetual oversight and unvarying labor she may make one ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... like the cobbler's tye, That binds two soles in unity; But love is like the cobbler's awl, That pierces through ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 13, Issue 353, January 24, 1829 • Various

... Chrome-vanadium steel Alloy steel Circular saw plates Automobile steel Coal auger steel Awl steel Coal mining pick or cutter steel Axe and hatchet steel Coal wedge steel Band knife steel Cone steel Band saw steel Crucible cast steel Butcher saw steel Crucible machinery steel Chisel steel Cutlery steel Chrome-nickel steel Drawing ...
— The Working of Steel - Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel • Fred H. Colvin

... engaged in mending up a precious old volume, which by reason of age and use had become dangerously dilapidated. He was manipulating skilfully, as one accustomed to the business, with awl and a large needle, surrounded by his glue-pot and bits of leather and paper. At the question he lifted up his head and looked at his father. Mr. Dallas did not like the look; it was too keen and had too much recognition in it; he feared he had unwarily showed his play. But Pitt answered ...
— A Red Wallflower • Susan Warner

... near South Alligator River Portraits of "Charley" and "Harry Brown" Mount Nicholson, Expedition Range, etc. Peak Range Red Mountain Fletcher's Awl, etc. Campbell's Peak Mount M'Connel. Ranges seen from a granitic hill between second and third camp at the Burdekin Robey's Range Grasshopper View near South Alligator River Victoria Square, ...
— Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia • Ludwig Leichhardt

... of connecting rental batteries with cable terminals, to cars with clamp type terminals. In Fig. 155 the cable insulation is stripped for a space of an inch and the strands are equally divided with an awl. A bolt is passed through the opening and a washer and nut ...
— The Automobile Storage Battery - Its Care And Repair • O. A. Witte

... but the rider lay still, the blood pulsing from his throat and staining the yellow sand. With dextrous fingers Tahn-te removed the helmet and breastplate that the position of the body might be eased. With sinew of deer from his pouch, and a bone awl of needle-like sharpness, he drew together the edges of the wound, then turning to where the Navahu lay prone on his face in the sand, he deftly cut a strip of the brown skin a finger's width across, and in length from shoulder to girdle; this he took from the yet warm body as he would ...
— The Flute of the Gods • Marah Ellis Ryan

... her at Danemora's immense gulf, whither we came on broad, smooth, excellent high-roads, through the fresh forest. She sat on the extreme edge of the rocky wall, above the abyss, and kicked at the tun with her thin, awl-like legs, as it hung in iron chains on large beams, from the tower-high corner of the ...
— Pictures of Sweden • Hans Christian Andersen

... living will give it him, has contrived the figure of a beau, in wood; who stands before him in a bending posture, with his hat under his left arm, and his right hand extended in such a manner as to hold a thread, a piece of wax, or an awl, according to the particular service in which his master thinks fit to employ him. When I saw him, he held a candle in this obsequious posture. I was very well pleased with the cobbler's invention, that had so ingeniously contrived an inferior, ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IV (of X)—Great Britain and Ireland II • Various

... Kelpie who haunted the loch at Moulin na Fouah. So he took a brown right-sided maned horse, and a brown black-muzzled dog, and with the help of the dog he captured the Fuath, and tied her on the horse behind him. She was very fierce, but he pinned her down with an awl and a needle. Crossing the burn or brook near Loch Migdal she grew very restless, and the man stuck the awl and the needle into her with great force. Then she cried, "Pierce me with the awl, but keep that slender hair-like slave (the needle) out of me." ...
— Fairy Tales; Their Origin and Meaning • John Thackray Bunce

... tu kno i hav got enny mony. yu wont now wil yu. i am first rate heer, only that gude fur nuthin snipe of liz madwurth is heer yit—but i hop tu git red ov her now. yu no i rote yu bout her. give my luv to awl inquiren friends. this is from your ...
— The First Violin - A Novel • Jessie Fothergill

... sorts of manufactured wares, and to the West Indies for sugar, and rum, and coffee. Others will stand behind counters, and measure tape, and ribbon, and cambric, by the yard. Others will upheave the blacksmith's hammer, or drive the plane over the carpenter's bench, or take the lapstone and the awl, and learn the trade of shoe-making. Many will follow the sea, and become bold, ...
— True Stories from History and Biography • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... the Otaria Falklandica of Desmarest (the Phoca falklandica* of Shaw) by the want of the woolly substance under the hair (called fur by the seal-fishers) and by the length of the ear, which in the latter species, described by Shaw, is long and awl-shaped. ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] • Phillip Parker King

... the notes of a bird in the adjoining shrubbery. "And by the bye," said he, as they continued listening, "'tis a long time, Johnny, since we have had the Cobbler of Kelso." Mr. Puff forthwith jumped up on a mass of stone, and seating himself in the proper attitude of one working with his awl, began a favorite interlude, mimicking a certain son of Crispin, at whose stall Scott and he had often lingered when they were schoolboys, and a blackbird, the only companion of his cell, that used to sing to him, while he talked and whistled to it all day long. With ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume V (of 10) • John Gibson Lockhart

... better, therefore, make an inclined stand, and this can easily be done, the only tools really required being a knife, a brad-awl and a screw-driver. Procure one piece of wood 14 inches by 6 inches, one piece of wood 12 inches by 6 inches, one piece of wood 14 inches by 12 inches, all 3/8 inch ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume XIII, No. 51: November 12, 1892 • Various

... tools of the rigger, grappler, sail-maker, block-maker, Goods of gutta-percha, papier-mache, colours, brushes, brush-making, glaziers' implements, The veneer and glue-pot, the confectioner's ornaments, the decanter and glasses, the shears and flat-iron, The awl and knee-strap, the pint measure and quart measure, the counter and stool, the writing-pen of quill or metal—the making of all sorts of edged tools, The brewery, brewing, the malt, the vats, everything that is done ...
— Poems By Walt Whitman • Walt Whitman

... as if I'd stuck a brad-awl into him. The shocked expression came across his face again, and he runs to Emeline and ...
— The Woman-Haters • Joseph C. Lincoln

... move. H is her Shibboleth. 'Tis said Her Mother was a Kitchen-Maid.' Poor Fred! What will Honoria say? She thought so highly of him. Pray Tell it her gently. I've no right, I know you hold, to trust my sight; But Frederick's state could not be hid! Awl Felix, coming when he did, Was lucky; for Honoria, too, Was half in love. How warm she grew On 'worldliness,' when once I said I fancied that, in ladies, Fred Had tastes much better than his means! His hand was worthy of a ...
— The Victories of Love - and Other Poems • Coventry Patmore

... that brought blessings to the orphan boy as they flew. The God in whom he trusted had provided for him—had awakened a friendly kindness in many warm hearts. And Gotleib, who was at first designed by his relatives to spend his days over the shoemaker's awl and last, at length found himself, by his own ardent exertions and the helpful kindness of others, a student in the University. This was to him a most pure gratification—not because of a love of learning, not because of ambition, to attain a position before his fellow-men. Oh! it was quite ...
— Words of Cheer for the Tempted, the Toiling, and the Sorrowing • T. S. Arthur

... were rayed out and flattened on the hinder part of its back, even as if it had lain on that part, but were erect and long between this and the tail. Their points, closely examined, were seen to be finely bearded or barbed, and shaped like an awl, that is, a little concave, to give the barbs effect. After about a mile of still water, we prepared our camp on the right side, just at the foot of a considerable fall. Little chopping was done that night, for fear of scaring the moose. We had moose- meat fried for supper. It tasted like ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Number 9, July, 1858 • Various

... was fitted, Antler took it off. Then the women sat down and worked until it was done. They punched holes through the edges with a bone awl. Then they threaded the sinew through the holes in an ...
— The Later Cave-Men • Katharine Elizabeth Dopp

... Captain Lewis talked with the Indian chiefs all day. They promised to let some young Indians show the way over the mountains. The captains gave each soldier some of their goods and sent him out to get food. Captain Lewis wrote that each man had "only one awl and one knitting- pin, half an ounce of vermilion, two needles, a few skeins of thread, and a yard of ribbon." Two of the men took their goods with them in a canoe. The canoe turned over. They lost all their goods. They just ...
— The Bird-Woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition • Katherine Chandler

... stelliform^; sagittate^, sagittiform^; arrowheaded^; arrowy^, barbed, spurred. acinaciform; apiculate^, apiculated^; aristate^, awned, awny^, bearded, calamiform^, cone-shaped, coniform^, crestate^, echinate^, gladiate^; lanceolate^, lanciform; awl, awl-shaped, lance-shaped, awl- shaped, scimitar-shaped, sword-shaped; setarious^, spinuliferous^, subulate^, tetrahedral, xiphoid^. cutting; sharp edged, knife edged; sharp as a razor, keen ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... loved Joanna, and that she must be his wife; and a smile came on his lips at the thought, and at one time he drew the thread so fast as he worked, and pressed his foot so hard against the knee strap, that he ran the awl into his finger; but what did he care for that? He was determined not to play the dumb lover as both the gingerbread cakes had done; the story was a good ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen

... on his bench, selected a half-made shoe, got it between his knees, and began to stitch with great gusto. Padna admired the skilful manner in which he made the holes with his awl and drew the wax-end with rapid strokes. Padna abandoned the impression that the shoemaker was a melancholy man. He thought he never sat near a man so optimistic, so mentally emancipated, so detached from the indignity ...
— Waysiders • Seumas O'Kelly

... apt to betray us into absurdities, and confuse the memory; so that good men, like Manoah, speak or act inconsistently with themselves, and their own more deliberate convictions. Happy they who are blessed with an intelligent awl pious companion, whose kind suggestions may detect their errors, refresh their recollections, quell their fears, and comfort their desponding hours! Thus "two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour. For, if they fall, the one will lift ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I • Francis Augustus Cox

... mean, Dan Baxter, by this attack?" he began, when the bully aimed another blow at him. This struck Tom full in the temple and partly dazed him. Then the two clenched awl fell heavily ...
— The Rover Boys on Land and Sea - The Crusoes of Seven Islands • Arthur M. Winfield

... house was lited up in grate stile and the winders was filld with mottoes amung which I notised the follerin—"Trooth smashed to erth shall rize agin—YOU CAN'T STOP HER." "The Boy stood on the Burnin Deck whense awl but him had Fled." "Prokrastinashun is the theaf of Time." "Be virtoous & you will be Happy." "Intemperunse has cawsed a heap of trubble—shun the Bole," an the follerin sentimunt written by the skool master, who graduated at Hudson Kollige: "Baldinsville sends greetin to Her Magisty the Queen, & ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 1 • Charles Farrar Browne

... lasted, and, when this material was gone, they covered the entire shoe with green beeve or mule hide, drawn together and sewed upon the top, with the hair inside, which protected the upper as well as the sole leather. The sewing was done with an awl and buckskin strings. These simple expedients contributed greatly to the comfort of the party; and, indeed, I am by no means sure that they did not, in our straitened condition, without the transportation necessary for carrying disabled men, ...
— The Prairie Traveler - A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions • Randolph Marcy

... Patcher is a bald translator, Whose awl bores at the words but not the matter; But this TRANSLATOR makes good use of leather, By stitching rhyme ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 82, May 24, 1851 • Various

... porch of Mr. Winters's rancho, making preparations for their hunting expedition. Frank was cleaning his rifle, and Archie and Johnny were repairing an old pack-saddle, in which they intended to carry their provisions and extra ammunition. Archie was seated on the floor, with an awl in one hand, and a piece of stout twine in the other; and, while he was working at the pack-saddle, his tongue ...
— Frank Among The Rancheros • Harry Castlemon

... This is our seed-time, our winter; afflictions are to try us of what mettle we are made; yea, and to shake off worm-eaten fruit, and such as are rotten at core. Troubles for Christ's sake are but like the prick of an awl in the tip of the ear, in order to hang a ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... these boxes remained to be finished on the particular order upon which Phoebe was working. Each must be given eight muslin strips, four on the box and four on its cover; two tapes, inserted with a hair-pin through awl-holes; two tissue "flies," to tuck over the bonnet soon to nestle underneath; four pieces of gay paper lace to please madame's eye when the lid is lifted; and three labels, one on the bottom, one on the top, and ...
— The Long Day - The Story of a New York Working Girl As Told by Herself • Dorothy Richardson

... stealing, Gerard all over. What he wanted least, and any poor Christian in the house wanted most, that went first. Mother was a notable woman, so if she did but look round, away flew her thimble. Father lived by cordwaining, so about sunrise Jack went diligently off with his awl, his wax, and his twine. After that, make your bread how you could! One day I heard my mother tell him to his face he was enough to corrupt half-a-dozen other children; and he only cocked his eye at her, and next minute away with the nurseling's ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade

... which fashions the iron, the awl which pierces the leather, and the saw that cuts the log into boards have an active function to perform. They do not receive utilities, but impart them. They manipulate other things and are not themselves manipulated; ...
— Essentials of Economic Theory - As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public Policy • John Bates Clark

... The contents of these cells, which have been partially ripped up to satisfy my curiosity, are very much exposed to view. The windfall appears to be appreciated, for I see the dwarf ferret about from cell to cell for four days on end, see her choose her cocoon and insert her awl in the most approved fashion. I thus learn that sight, although an indispensable guide in searching, does not decide upon the proper spot for the operation. Here is an insect exploring not the stony exterior of the mason's dwelling, but the surface of cocoons woven of silk. ...
— The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre

... to trees, loosely, by a small copper or brass wire. Transported to any distance, exposed to any weather, or buried in the ground, they will not be obliterated. Pieces of sheet lead, tin, or zinc, cut wide at one end, and written on with a sharp awl, and narrow at the other end, to be bent around a limb, will answer a pretty good purpose. Any soft wood, made smooth, and a little white paint applied, and written on with a good pencil, will preserve the mark for a long ...
— Soil Culture • J. H. Walden

... shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him unto the Judges, and he shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... see a country in a Sibylline manner, by inner consciousness: but you might have seen the pierced rock in your drive up, or down, if the clouds broke: not that there is much to see in it; one of the crags of the aiguille- edge, on the southern slope of it, is struck sharply through, as by an awl, into a little eyelet hole; which you may see, seven thousand feet above the valley (as the clouds flit past behind it, or leave the sky), first white, and then dark blue. Well, there's just such an ...
— The Ethics of the Dust • John Ruskin

... upon a nail Before a dusty window, looking dim On marts where trade goes hot with box and bale; The sad-eyed passers have no time for him. His captor sits, with beaded face and grim, Plying a listless awl, as in a dream Of pastures winding ...
— Songs, Merry and Sad • John Charles McNeill

... perhaps, twenty-five shells all told. The first eight or ten failed to explode for the reason that the fuses had not been punched. Finally, Capt. Ennis discovered that his shells were not exploding, and, on inquiry, found that there was no fuse-punch in the battery. He succeeded in finding a brad-awl, which, luckily, some member of the battery had in his pocket, and showed a sergeant how to punch the fuse with a brad-awl. After this the mortar shells exploded all right. None of this fire, however, was directed ...
— The Gatlings at Santiago • John H. Parker

... my heart; and when I learned from the boys that it was in truth Jesus of Nazareth who passed on his way to Calvary to be crucified, my heart leaped within me at the thought that the law had at length overtaken the malefactor. I laid down the sandal and my awl, and rose and went forth and stood in the front of my shop. And Jesus drew nigh, and as he passed, lo, the end of the cross dragged upon the street. And one in the crowd came behind, and lifted it up and pushed ...
— Thomas Wingfold, Curate • George MacDonald

... saw the house freed of her importunate visitors, and the little boy reclaimed from the pastimes of the wynd to the exercise of the awl, she went to visit her unhappy relative, David Deans, and his elder daughter, who had found in her house the nearest ...
— The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... with separate labelled pockets for different tools; each pocket with flap to fasten securely with dress snaps. In this tool-bag put assorted nails, mostly big, strong ones, screws, awl, well-sealed bottle of strong glue, ball of stout twine, a few rawhide thongs, three or four yards of soft strong rope, a pair of scissors, two spools of wire, and several ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard

... Others will stand behind counters, and measure tape, and ribbon, and cambric by the yard. Others will upheave the blacksmith's hammer, or drive the plane over the carpenter's bench, or take the lapstone and the awl and learn the trade of shoemaking. Many will follow the sea, and become ...
— Grandfather's Chair • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... upper extremities he removes the fire from about the pot and suffers the whole to cool gradually. the pot is then removed and the beads taken out. the clay which fills the hollow of the beads is picked out with an awl or nedle, the bead is then fit for uce. The Indians are extreemly fond of the large beads formed by this process. they use them as pendants to their years, or hair and sometimes ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... for the wits that had been choked out of him to return, and far down the street Mayor Stitz, hearing a noise, came out on his front platform and looked up the street. It appeared to him that something was going on, and sticking his awl in the door of his car, he walked blandly up the street to where the remnant of the crowd formed a half circle around the butcher. He crowded through, saying, "Look out, the mayor is coming. Stand one side ...
— Kilo - Being the Love Story of Eliph' Hewlitt Book Agent • Ellis Parker Butler

... (Sisymbrium officinale), with rigid, spreading branches, and spikes of tiny pale yellow flowers, quickly followed by awl-shaped pods that are closely appressed to the stem, abounds in waste places throughout our area. It blooms from May to November, ...
— Wild Flowers Worth Knowing • Neltje Blanchan et al

... and pointed with his awl to the branches above his head; there hung nine pairs of little green shoes, curled at the toes, with silver buckles, all stitched and soled and ready ...
— The Primrose Ring • Ruth Sawyer

... went to the table to look after the money, but there was a shoemaker under the table, and my! how he stuck his awl into me." ...
— English Fairy Tales • Flora Annie Steel

... hammered the iron and wept at the same time — But his ingenuity was not confined to his own province of farrier and black-smith — It was necessary to join the leather sling, which had been broke; and this service he likewise performed, by means of a broken awl, which he new-pointed and ground, a little hemp, which he spun into lingels, and a few tacks which he made for the purpose. Upon the whole, we were in a condition to proceed in little more than an hour; but even this delay obliged us to pass the night at Gisborough — Next day we crossed ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett

... a surgeon, ordered him to open her veins in a bath, that so, the blood running out more freely, she might sooner die. Also she bought poison, as the bleeding did not succeed, and procured a cobbler's awl wherewith to pierce her heart, but as the women with her were undecided whether the heart were on the right side or the left, she took the poison, and ...
— In Troubadour-Land - A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc • S. Baring-Gould

... times the shoemaker used to go from house to house with his lapstone, waxed end, awl, and other tools. The farmer provided the leather, which he had tanned from the hides of his own cattle. Now, however, manufacturers can buy the soles of one merchant, the heels of another, the box toe and stiffenings of another, and so on. In the United States there ...
— Makers of Many Things • Eva March Tappan

... and how He requires nothing higher of us than confidence from the heart for everything good, so that we may proceed right and straightforward and use all the blessings which God gives no farther than as a shoemaker uses his needle, awl, and thread for work, and then lays them aside, or as a traveler uses an inn, and food, and his bed only for temporal necessity, each one in his station, according to God's order, and without allowing any of these things ...
— The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther

... shadow picture taken by Professor Wright in this way, shows five objects laid side by side on a large plate—a saw, a case of pocket tools in their cover, a pocket lense opened out as for use, a pair of eye-glasses inside their leather case, and an awl. As will be seen from the accompanying reproduction of this picture, all the objects are photographed with remarkable distinctness, the leather case of the eye-glasses being almost transparent, the wood of the handles of the awl and saw being a little less so, while the glass ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 5, April, 1896 • Various

... who is the Author and Director of all Good; and the other, the Angel of Darkness, who is the Author and Director of all Evil; that these two are in a perpetual struggle with each other; and that where the Angel of Light prevails, there the most is good; awl where the Angel of Darkness prevails, there the most is evil. That this struggle shall continue to the end of the world; that then there shall be a general resurrection, and a day of judgment, wherein just retribution shall be rendered to all according to their works; after which, ...
— The Grounds of Christianity Examined by Comparing The New Testament with the Old • George Bethune English

... combings of her majesty's hair, whereof in time I got a good quantity; and consulting with my friend the cabinet-maker, who had received general orders to do little jobs for me, I directed him to make two chair-frames, no larger than those I had in my box, and to bore little holes with a fine awl, round those parts where I designed the backs and seats; through these holes I wove the strongest hairs I could pick out, just after the manner of cane chairs in England. When they were finished, I made a present of them to her ...
— Gulliver's Travels - into several remote nations of the world • Jonathan Swift

... be in trouble. ale, malt liquor. air, the atmosphere. heir, one who inherits. all, the whole. awl, an instrument. al-tar, a place for offerings. al-ter, to change. ant, a little insect. aunt, a sister to a parent. ark, a vessel. arc, ...
— In The Boyhood of Lincoln - A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster and the Times of Black Hawk • Hezekiah Butterworth

... branch of a tree blighted, or eaten by insects, procure a shoemaker's awl, and pierce the lower extremity of the branch into the wood; then pour in two or three drops of crude mercury, (which is the quicksilver in common use) and stop up the hole with a small stick. In about forty-eight hours, the insects, not only upon that ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, - Issue 322, July 12, 1828 • Various

... five virgin martyrs, with St. Cecilia in the centre, wearing a crown of roses; St. Lucia holds the awl, the instrument of her torture, looking down at St. Catherine, who leans against her terrible wheel; St. Agnes, on the other side, reads quietly from a book while she caresses her lamb, and St. Barbara stands behind her, with eyes lifted ...
— The Madonna in Art • Estelle M. Hurll

... them with sinews, to form the coverings for the lodges. Men were wandering among the bushes that lined the brook along the margin of the camp, cutting sticks of red willow, or shongsasha, the bark of which, mixed with tobacco, they use for smoking. Reynal's squaw was hard at work with her awl and buffalo sinews upon her lodge, while her proprietor, having just finished an enormous breakfast of meat, was smoking a social pipe along with Raymond and myself. He proposed at length that we should go out on a hunt. "Go to the Big Crow's ...
— The Oregon Trail • Francis Parkman, Jr.

... Phoebus newly tann'd and dry'd. For thee they Argo's Hulk will tax, And scrape her pitchy Sides for Wax. Then Ariadne kindly lends Her braided Hair to make thee Ends. The Point of Sagittarius' Dart Turns to an awl, by heav'nly Art; And Vulcan, wheedled by his Wife, Will forge for thee a Paring-Knife. For want of Room, by Virgo's Side, She'll strain a Point, and sit astride***, To take thee kindly in between, And then the Signs will ...
— The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers • Jonathan Swift

... cases they are lashed with shoe thread, and in others clamped with a metal clamp fastened with 1/2-inch wood screws. Where clamps and screws are used care should be taken to make slight holes in the wood with an awl before starting the screws so as to lessen any tendency to split the wood. On the top frame, twenty-one ribs placed one foot apart will be required. On the lower frame, because of the opening left for the operator's body, you will need ...
— Flying Machines - Construction and Operation • W.J. Jackman and Thos. H. Russell

... canoe there was a hole large enough, as Bryan remarked, to stick his head through, though it was a "big wan, an' no mistake." Taking up a roll of bark, which was carried with them for the purpose, Massan cut from it a square patch, which he sewed over the hole, using an awl for a needle and the fibrous roots of the pine tree, called wattape, for thread. After it was firmly sewed on, the seams were covered with melted gum, and the broken spot was as tight and strong as ever. There were next found several long slits, one of them fully three feet, which were more ...
— Ungava • R.M. Ballantyne

... barbed, spurred. acinaciform; apiculate[obs3], apiculated[obs3]; aristate[obs3], awned, awny[obs3], bearded, calamiform[obs3], cone-shaped, coniform[obs3], crestate[obs3], echinate[obs3], gladiate[obs3]; lanceolate[obs3], lanciform; awl, awl-shaped, lance-shaped, awl-shaped, scimitar-shaped, sword-shaped; setarious[obs3], spinuliferous[obs3], subulate[obs3], tetrahedral, xiphoid[obs3]. cutting; sharp edged, knife edged; sharp ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... in for all I am worth on the double vowels. I alreddy agree with the English Society on "faather", "feel" and "scuul", and am going to do all I can for niit, and for spredding the oo in floor and door into snore, more, hole, poke, etc. "Awl", "cow" and "go" are spelt wel, and their spelling shoud be spred. These seem to be the lines of least resistance. I find that they work first-rate in ...
— The Unpopular Review, Volume II Number 3 • Various

... Bull will lend his hide, By Phoebus newly tanned and dried! For thee, they Argo's hulk will tax, And scrape her pitchy sides for wax! Then Ariadne kindly lends Her braided hair, to make thee ends! The point of Sagittarius' dart Turns to an awl, by heavenly art! And Vulcan, wheedled by his wife, Will forge ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe

... a country as ever Adam and Eve had to themselves; but it wa'n't home. Howsomever, after a while the savages took to me mightily. I was allers handy with tools, and by good luck I'd come off with two jack-knives and a loose awl in my jacket-pocket, so I could beat 'em all at whittlin'; and I made figgers on their bows an' pipe-stems, of things they never see,—roosters, and horses, Miss Buel's old sleigh, and the Albany stage, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 • Various

... not see you, has my time will be short, I takes the liburty of writin' a line, and ham 'appy to hinform you, as things seem to me awl a-goin' wrong, leastways I think you'll say so when you 'ears my tail. Muster Richard's been back above a week, and he and the Old Un is up to their same tricks again; but that ain't awl—there's a black-haired pale ...
— Frank Fairlegh - Scenes From The Life Of A Private Pupil • Frank E. Smedley

... his hands, the knuckles whereof were unwashably embalmed with pitch, had not of themselves betrayed the fact, the awl hanging beside his leather apron, and evidently left there by accident, would have declared that the individual in question belonged to that estimable section of the community whose business in life it is to provide humanity with corns. His ...
— The Day of Wrath • Maurus Jokai

... therefore I av determined to put my heavy log into an M T rum-bottle, and throw it overbord, in bops it may be pickd up by some pirson who will bare my sad tail to my dear Sally. And now I conclewd with this short advice:—Let awl yung men take warning by my crewel fate. Let them avide bad kumpany and keep out of the Palass; and above all, let them mind their bissnesses on dri land, and never cast their fortunes on any main, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... hand. He has not to go back to the village a mile away if anything breaks. We never thought, as these people do, that all repairs to tools and ploughs can be done on the very spot. All that is needed when a strap breaks, is that each ploughman should have an awl and a leather-cutter to stitch the leather. How is it with us in our country? If leather breaks, we farmers say that leather is unclean, and we go back from the fields into the village to the village cobbler that he may mend it. Unclean? Do not we handle that same thing with the leather on it ...
— The Eyes of Asia • Rudyard Kipling

... the form of stones. He chopped and bruised them with his hatchet; blood and flesh issued forth; and the intended victim, however distant, languished and died. Like the sorcerer of the Middle Ages, he made images of those he wished to destroy, and, muttering incantations, punctured them with an awl, whereupon the persons represented sickened and ...
— The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century • Francis Parkman

... is my Self within the heart,' and on account of the declaration as to its minuteness contained in the direct statement, 'He is smaller than a grain of rice,' &c.; the embodied soul only, which is of the size of an awl's point, is spoken of in the passage under discussion, and not the highest Self. This assertion made above (in the purvapaksha of Sutra I, and restated in the purvapaksha of the present Sutra) has to be refuted. We therefore maintain that the objection raised does not invalidate our view ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1 • George Thibaut

... feared. "Inteet, and you'll be putting that tail to the end o' the psawlms too." He tapped Lawyer Ed on the arm with his spectacle case. "Jist be waiting a bit till you get permission, young man. You and John Thornton are not jist awl the session." ...
— The End of the Rainbow • Marian Keith

... some fairly fast traveling before, but the rate of speed now set by Gus Schmidt almost took away Dick's breath. On and on bounded the sled, the dogs yelping wildly at first, but then settling down to a steady pace. Up one hill awl down another they dashed, sending the loose snow flying in all directions. Soon the camp was left out of sight, even the smoke gradually ...
— The Rover Boys in Alaska - or Lost in the Fields of Ice • Arthur M. Winfield

... turn away, granny!" says he. She turned and twisted, but didn't break the cord. Then he took an awl, heated it red-hot, and applied it to her eye—her sound one. At the same moment he caught up a hatchet, and hammered away vigorously with the back of it at the awl. She struggled like anything, and broke the cord; then she went and ...
— Russian Fairy Tales - A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore • W. R. S. Ralston

... down again, looking as Shep did when Cousin Ann told him to get up on the couch, and took up his needle and awl. ...
— Understood Betsy • Dorothy Canfield

... in his mouth. After keeping her two days on board, de Weert set her on shore, giving her a gown and cap, with necklace and bracelets of glass beads. He gave her also a small mirror, a knife, a nail, an awl, and a few other toys of small value, with which she seemed much pleased. He cloathed the boy also, and decorated him with glass beads of all colours; but carried the girl to Holland, where she died. The mother seemed much concerned at parting with ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... is the arrangement and combination of six dots on two lines. Those on the upper line are numbered 1, 3 and 5, and those on the lower 2, 4 and 6. These are made within spaces about three-sixteenths of an inch square each, by a styles which resembles a small, dull awl or centre punch. To prevent the dots being confused the writer uses a writing board, to which the paper is clamped by a metallic guide-rule perforated with two or more rows of these squares. The pupils make these punctured letters with great precision and rapidity, ...
— The World As I Have Found It - Sequel to Incidents in the Life of a Blind Girl • Mary L. Day Arms

... is not available, a brazing torch is an essential tool. Numerous small torches are being made, which are cheap and easily operated. A small soldering iron, with pointed end, should be provided; also metal shears and a small square; an awl and several sizes of gimlets; a screwdriver; pair of ...
— Electricity for Boys • J. S. Zerbe

... they cut with an axe near a fire, or stick a knife into a burning stick, or touch the fire with a knife, they will "cut the top off the fire." The Sioux Indians will not stick an awl or a needle into a stick of wood on the fire, or chop on it with an axe or ...
— The Antediluvian World • Ignatius Donnelly

... friends, determined that his son Kit should learn a trade. A few miles from Kit's forest home, there lived a Mr. David Workman, a saddler. To him he was apprenticed. With Mr. Workman young Carson remained two years, enjoying both the confidence and respect of his employer; but, mourning over the awl, the hide of new leather, the buckle and strap; for, the glorious shade of the mighty forest; the wild battle with buffalo and bear; the crack of the unerring rifle, pointed at the trembling deer. Saddlery is an honorable employment; ...
— The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself • De Witt C. Peters

... With provident care, a little box had been placed under the seat of the wagon, containing an awl, waxed ends, and various other little conveniences exactly suited to ...
— Wau-bun - The Early Day in the Northwest • Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie

... wardrobe, yet the economy and invention which necessity teaches a sailor, soon put each of us in pretty good trim for bad weather, even before we had seen the last of the fine. Even the cobbler's art was not out of place. Several old shoes were very decently repaired, and with waxed ends, an awl, and the top of an old boot, I made me quite a respectable ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

... interestedly as his mother, using the bone needle, which he often sharpened for her with his flint scraper, sewed together the skins which made the garments of the family. The needle was one without an eye, a mere awl, which made holes through which the thread was pushed. As the growing boy lounged or labored near his mother, alternately helpful or annoying, as the case might be, he learned many things which were of value to him in the future, and resolved ...
— The Story of Ab - A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man • Stanley Waterloo

... merrily and started singing "Cock-a-doodle-doo! I was sitting under the wall, plaiting shoes, when I lost my awl, but I found a little coin, and I bought a little scarf, and gave it to a ...
— More Russian Picture Tales • Valery Carrick

... just as children in other lands do. Very soon she learns to take care of the baby; to watch over it in the lodge, or carry it on her back while the mother is away for wood or dressing buffalo-robes. Little girl as she is, she is sent to the brook or lake for water. She has her little work-bag with awl and sinew, and learns to make small moccasins as her mother makes large ones. Sometimes she goes with her mother to the wood and brings home her little bundle of sticks. When the camp moves, she has her small pack ...
— The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought • Alexander F. Chamberlain

... snapped at them, and his eyes gleamed with a smile sharp as an awl. Then holding his head in an attitude of direct challenge, with a short, thick pipe between his teeth, he walked behind them, and now and then called out: ...
— Mother • Maxim Gorky

... houses were not warm. Then the people took the leg bone of the deer and splintered it So they made sharp pieces for awls. Then they took buffalo skins and sinews, and with the awl they fastened the skins together. So they made comfortable covers for ...
— Myths and Legends of the Great Plains • Unknown

... proceeded to cut off his head, but Loki objected that he was to have the head only, and not the neck. As he would not be quiet, the dwarf took a knife and a thong, and began to sew his mouth up; but the knife was bad, so the dwarf wished that he had his brother's awl, and as soon as he wished it, it was there. So he sewed Loki's ...
— Folk-Lore and Legends; Scandinavian • Various

... said his interesting companion; and she held up with her other hand a shoemaker's awl and a hammer. 'You must never do these things with a gimlet, because the wood-dust gets in; and when the buyers pour out the brandy that would tell them that the tub had been broached. An awl makes no dust, and the hole nearly closes up again. Now ...
— Wessex Tales • Thomas Hardy



Words linked to "Awl" :   point, awl-shaped, helve, bradawl, scratch awl



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