"Irk" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... a most dutiful daughter-in-law, and with the baby long kept the headsman's ax from descending. But even their restraining power had its limitations. The irk of that "godless" office was being more and more poorly met by Dave. Five times during the fourth year he took ungranted periods of relaxation. The last time the usual draft was not paid. He unwisely signed a check, badly overdrawing his private account. ...
— Our Nervous Friends - Illustrating the Mastery of Nervousness • Robert S. Carroll
... but to starve and to work (Mrs. LABOUCHERE hints), the most patient may irk; And the lady is right— Business? On brutes who dare mouth such base trash, Mr. Punch, who loves justice and sense, lays his ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., December 13, 1890 • Various
... the patience and the energy to maintain the normal, receptive mind with which he is naturally endowed. Unfortunately with that endowment commonly comes another—namely, a tendency to avoid the irk or constant struggle by taking the line of least resistance; by adopting an opinion and upholding it in the face of all reason; and only a man of exceptional patience, courage and ability can keep himself free from ...
— H. G. Wells • J. D. Beresford
... the hotel which already was beginning to irk him, settled in a little bungalow of his own, trim and white, in front of the sea so that he had before his eyes always the multicoloured variety of the lagoon. He loved the beautiful island. London ...
— The Trembling of a Leaf - Little Stories of the South Sea Islands • William Somerset Maugham
... and a growling. They sprang to their feet, shouting, screaming, running this way and that, but brands would not burn, and in a minute the victim was being dragged away through the ferns. It was Irk, the brother of Wau. ...
— Tales of Space and Time • Herbert George Wells
... last hour; thy hope is gone from thee and thy life is past.' 'By Allah, O Hisham,' answered the Arab, 'if the time[FN128] be prolonged and its cutting short be not ordained of destiny, thy words irk me not, be they much or little.' Then said the (chief) chamberlain to him, 'O vilest of the Arabs, what art thou to bandy words with the Commander of the Faithful?' He answered promptly, 'Mayest thou meet with adversity and may woe and mourning never depart from thee! ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume III • Anonymous
... well organized for world-commerce.—But let these nomad kings come into it with their horde, and what would become of the ordered civic life? Nomads do not take well to life in great cities; they love the openness of their everlasting plains, and the narrrow streets and high buildings irk their sensibilities. For this reason, and perhaps because they recognised their deficienceies, they shunned Seleucia; and built themselves lumbering straggling gawky Ctesiphon across the Tigris to be their chief capital;—for they had many; not abiding to be long in one place, but gadding ...
— The Crest-Wave of Evolution • Kenneth Morris
... so, It should not irk thee, she being wronged alone; Thy mother's bed, and not thy father's throne, Being soiled with usurpation. Ay? but say That now mine uncle and her sire lies dead And helpless now to help her, or affray The heart wherein her ruin and thine were bred, ...
— Locrine - A Tragedy • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... scarcely-yet shaped planet, peopled with Things whose enjoyment was to be in blindness— 100 A Paradise of Ignorance, from which Knowledge was barred as poison. But behold What these superior beings are or were; Or, if it irk thee, turn thee back and till The earth, thy task—I'll ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron
... it may be seen How kirk and causay they soop[149] clean. The images into the kirk May think of their syde taillis irk;[150] For when the weather been maist fair, The dust flies highest in the air, And all their faces does begarie. Gif they could speak, they wald them warie...[151] But I have maist into despite Poor claggocks[152] ...
— English Satires • Various
... constantly contented with it but that they are always coming off in boats to dine at the neighboring hotels. Doubtless a yacht has a crumpled rose-leaf under it, and possibly the keelless hull of the houseboat feels the irk ...
— Imaginary Interviews • W. D. Howells
... trust of him whom death awaits * To Al-Rashid and God reward thy care! And say An exile who desired thy sight * Long loving, from afar sends greeting fair. Nor hate nor irk (No!) him from thee withdrew, * Kissing thy right to Heaven brought him near.[FN165] But what estranged his soul, O sire, from thee * Is that thy worldly ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton |
