"Nib" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Lordship son-in-law to old Goldsmid, whilom editor of the Anti-Galliean, and for many years an honoured and withal notorious resident of Paris! Of course BEN D'ISRAELI, his Lordship's friend, will get a slice of secretaryship—may be allowed to nib a state quill, if he must not use one. Well, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... a single blot; or confessing to me, in perfect confidence, how much the thinness of Susan's upstrokes, or the thickness of her downstrokes, was owing to the clearness of his slit or the fineness of his nib. ...
— The Doll and Her Friends - or Memoirs of the Lady Seraphina • Unknown
... the great Mr. Poole sits sharpening the pen which is to slay Christianity. But Christianity will escape Mr. Poole's pen. It, has outlived many such attacks in the past. We shall see, however, what kind of nib he uses, fine or blunt?' The journalist followed the butler down the long library overlooking green sward to a quiet nook, if he might venture to speak of Mr. Walter Poole's study as a quiet nook. It seemed to surprise him that Mr. Walter Poole should rise from his writing-table ...
— The Lake • George Moore
... parchment, upon which is written in contracted law Latin, "Preceptum fuit Vicecomiti per breve hujus Scaccarii." To the right of the last-named figure is another officer of the court, who is in the act of examining his pen by placing its nib at a short distance from his eyes; and this person carries in his left hand a piece of parchment upon which are written, in like character, the words "Memorandum quod x die Maii, &c." To the right of this officer, who ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 62, January 4, 1851 • Various
... writing table, took from a drawer a bundle of foolscap paper, fitted a new nib to his pen and filled his ink bottle. He ...
— Lady Bountiful - 1922 • George A. Birmingham
... is neither here nor there. When candles came, we drew our chairs together, and he told me in substance the following story. I will tell it in my own words,—not that they are so good as his, but because they come more readily to the nib of my pen. ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various
... unbearable. She walked quickly and blindly in the opposite direction, and found herself at the end of a cul de sac. There was a window, and a table and a chair in the window, and upon the table stood a rusty inkstand, an ashtray, an old copy of a French newspaper, and a pen with a broken nib. Rachel sat down, as if to study the French newspaper, but a tear fell on the blurred French print, raising a soft blot. She lifted her head sharply, exclaiming aloud, "It's intolerable!" Looking out of the window with eyes that would have seen ...
— The Voyage Out • Virginia Woolf
... indented the nib of her penholder. "Was ever a woman in such a predicament before? So illusionary and yet so ridiculously actual! Shall I send Hedworth away and sit down with this phantom through life? I understand that some women get their happiness out of just that sort of thing. Then when I forget Hedworth ...
— The Bell in the Fog and Other Stories • Gertrude Atherton
... in itself is as good as another, just as one kind of nib is as good as another, since problems are valuable only as means. That problem is best for any particular artist that serves that particular artist best. The ideal problem will be the one that raises ...
— Since Cezanne • Clive Bell
... twa bits o' breed-an'-butter. It's no' mainners; an' yer Aunt Purdie's rale partecclar. An' yer no' to dicht yer mooth wi' yer cuff—mind that. Ye're to tak' yer hanky an' let on ye're jist gi'ein' yer nib a bit wipe. An' ye're no' to scale yer tea nor sup the sugar if ony's left in yer cup when ye're dune drinkin'. An' if ye drap yer piece on the floor ye're no' to gang efter it; ye're jist to let on ye've ...
— Quit Your Worrying! • George Wharton James
... in the first volume, has the merit of regularity, and appears the same throughout the succeeding six, except in the rare places (e.g. vi. 92-93), where the lazy copyist did not care to change a worn-out pen, and continued to write with a double nib. On the other hand, it is the character of a village-schoolmaster whose literary culture is at its lowest. Hardly a sheet appears without some blunder which only in rare places is erased or corrected, ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... and days of toil in struggling to fashion the serried columns of black letter, writing and rewriting till he could shape the massive character with firm true hand. He cut his quills with the patience of a monk in the scriptorium, shaving and altering the nib, lightening and increasing the pressure and flexibility of the points, till the pen satisfied him, and gave a stroke both broad and even. Then he made experiments in inks, searching for some medium that would rival the glossy black letter ...
— The Hill of Dreams • Arthur Machen
... which had befallen him. Brother Dunstan asked himself if his thoughts were worthy of a senior novice, of one who had for a while acted as Prior and been accorded the address of Reverend Brother. He decided that they were not, and as a penance he begged for the nib with which Brother Anselm had signed his profession. This he wore round his neck as an amulet against unbrotherly thoughts and as a pledge of his own determination to vow himself eternally ...
— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie
... Turold did not put down his pen voluntarily," he said. "He stopped involuntarily, in the midst of a word. That suggests great surprise or sudden shock. The letter 'e' in the word 'clear' terminates in a sprawling dash and a jab from the nib which has almost pierced the paper. Could the unexpected appearance of his daughter have startled him in that fashion? It rather suggests that somebody sprang on him unawares, surprising him so much that he almost stuck the pen ...
— The Moon Rock • Arthur J. Rees
... "I nib my pen and impart to it a fine hair stroke in order that I may give the more delicate touch which can alone show forth the character of this distinguished gentleman. If I hold the pen in hand in idle reverie, it is because my mind rests lovingly upon a picture I feel incapable ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson
... writing was an impossibility under the circumstances, but she was determined that he should not recognise her embarrassment. Her nib flew relentlessly over the sheets, but the letter was disconnected and dry. At last she gathered her writing materials together, and rose to leave ...
— Grey Town - An Australian Story • Gerald Baldwin
... gay beginning for a young officer's active service, but Gordon, like his mother, had a way of making the best of things. Even when, as he wrote, the ink was frozen, and he broke the nib of his pen as he dipped it, "There are really no hardships for the officers," he wrote home; "the men ...
— The Story of General Gordon • Jeanie Lang
... Gall's sister," she said, trying the pen on a piece of blotting-paper, and smiling at us deprecatingly. Even for the most jaded of us life holds its thrilling moments. Two Baronesses in two months! The manager immediately left the room to find a new nib. ...
— In a German Pension • Katherine Mansfield
... curious peculiarities in the relative length of his t's, his l's, his b's, and his h's, we could see for ourselves he was right; both were the work of one hand, writing in the one case with a sharp-pointed nib, very small, and in the other with a quill, very large ...
— An African Millionaire - Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay • Grant Allen
... green-shaded electric light, and littered with proofs and copies of Hesperus, "A Paper for Doubters," which, with her assistance, he edited, published, compiled, wrote, and (without her help) paid for and read. A pen, flung down forcibly, quivered erect with its one surviving nib in the blotting pad. Mr. Lagune had ...
— Love and Mr. Lewisham • H. G. Wells
... I'm not the type. You have to have some terrific nib to give away prizes. I seem to remember, when I was at school, it was generally a prime ...
— Right Ho, Jeeves • P. G. Wodehouse
... end gained by taking notes of this reply, so I amused myself by making a good nib to my pen while I waited for something ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon
... black alder and at length reached the "colt pasture," upon a cleared hill. Here a handsome black colt, along with a sorrel and a white one, was feeding, and at once came racing to meet me, in the hope of a nib of provender, or salt. Continuing my voyage of discovery, I came to a tract of woodland beyond the pasture through which a cart road led to a clearing where there was a small old house, deserted, and also a small barn. This, as I had yet to learn, was the ...
— When Life Was Young - At the Old Farm in Maine • C. A. Stephens
... to Barodia was not destined to be written. He was still hesitating between two different kinds of nib, when the door was flung open and the fateful name of the Countess Belvane ...
— Once on a Time • A. A. Milne
... Caleb, giving his chair another hitch, dipping his pen afresh into the inkstand, and holding it suspended over the paper, with a threatening drop slowly collecting on the nib. "Now we'll get under weigh just as soon as ...
— A Noble Woman • Ann S. Stephens
... a nib on the end of your nose and write with it?" he inquired, as I was poring over an account-book in front of me, trying to make out the rather minute ...
— My Friend Smith - A Story of School and City Life • Talbot Baines Reed
... dry gangrene of the ears in animals born of parents in which these ear-alterations had been caused by an injury to the restiform body near the nib of the calamus. ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - Volume I • Charles Darwin
... or control his scattered senses. He made but little progress. The clock of Saint Mary's told the passing hours, and at twelve Julian found himself with nothing written except a few half-finished and incoherent sentences which he was ashamed to show up. Dashing the nib of his pen on the desk, he split it to pieces; and then, tearing up his papers, was hurrying out, when the voice of the examiner ...
— Julian Home • Dean Frederic W. Farrar
... apart, keep apart; insulate,, isolate; throw out of gear; cut adrift; loose; unloose, undo, unbind, unchain, unlock &c. (fix) 43, unpack, unravel; disentangle; set free &c. (liberate) 750. sunder, divide, subdivide, sever, dissever, abscind[obs3]; circumcise; cut; incide|, incise; saw, snip, nib, nip, cleave, rive, rend, slit, split, splinter, chip, crack, snap, break, tear, burst; rend &c. rend asunder, rend in twain; wrench, rupture, shatter, shiver, cranch[obs3], crunch, craunch[obs3], chop; cut up, rip up; hack, hew, slash; whittle; haggle, hackle, discind|, lacerate, scamble[obs3], ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... should go to the encounter twirling my moustache, bowing down to the ground, all smiles and compliments; and that I should select my rapier with a pleasant kind of feeling, like that experienced by the satirist about to write a brilliant article while picking out a pen with a suitable nib. On the other hand, if a murderous brute with truculent eyes and gnashing teeth attempts to disembowel me with a butcher's knife, the instinct of self-preservation comes out in all its old original ferocity, inspiring the heart with such implacable ...
— The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson
... stormy days of his youth the old man had been a "Black Nib." The Black Nibs were the persons who agitated against the French war; and the public feeling against them ran strong and deep. In Thrums the local Black Nibs were burned in effigy, and whenever they put their heads out of doors they risked being stoned. Even where the authorities were unprejudiced ...
— Auld Licht Idyls • J.M. Barrie
... the dots upon the warp must be taken all round each thread instead of marking one side only. The marking round is done by holding a warp-thread between the finger and thumb, placing the side of the nib against one of the dots, and then twisting the thread to and fro against it. All the marks upon the first thread are treated in succession in this way, then the next thread is taken up and treated in similar fashion, ...
— Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving • Grace Christie
... down to the nib of the thing and put you out of your misery. You've got two things to do—just two, Hardwick. One of 'em is to clean house and make a good job of it, just like you let Evan believe you were going to do when you sent him out to tell the people of this State ...
— The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush • Francis Lynde
... insects moths were! I wondered if the doctor used to collect them when he was a boy. The doctor must be nearly sixty now. Jolly to be a doctor, and have nothing to do but examine fellows! I wondered if Walker's father had written him a letter, and what sort of nib he (Walker) must be writing with, with such a peculiar squeak— rather like a frog's squeak. I wouldn't mind being a frog for some things; must be jolly to be equally at home on dry ground or in water! Fancy eating frogs! ...
— Parkhurst Boys - And Other Stories of School Life • Talbot Baines Reed
... pine for simpler, and more wholesome pleasures. Now," I continued, "if only Queen TITA and the rest will help us, I think we can do something to satisfy this clamour." For all answer, my pen-holder nestled lovingly in my hand. I placed my patent sunset-nib in its mouth, waved it twice, dipped ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102, April 30, 1892 • Various
... made, the man who sold, and the woman who supplied me with my present excruciating gilt nib to that place where ...
— The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson - Volume 1 • Robert Louis Stevenson
... uniform plan: first the picture [—] hawk-god, who desired to leave to his descendants a portion of his soul, then a simple or compound epithet, specifying that virtue of Horus which the Pharaoh wished particularly to possess—"Horu nib-maifc," Horus master of Truth; "Horu miri-toui," Horus friend of both lands; "Horu nibkhauu," Horus master of the risings; "Horu maziti," ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12) • G. Maspero
... correct shape, is tough and elastic; and now it is put into "tumbling barrels" which revolve till it is bright and ready for the finishing touches. If you look closely at the outside of a steel pen just above the nib, you will see that across it run tiny lines. They have a use, for they hold the ink back so that it will not roll down in drops, and they help to make the point more springy ...
— Makers of Many Things • Eva March Tappan
... Constance, slowly. And she added, pressing the nib of her pen on her finger-nail, "They say he doesn't marry just because he ...
— Our Friend the Charlatan • George Gissing
... would lie down by it, gaze attentively at the page and turn the leaves with his claws; then he ended by going to sleep, just as if he had really been reading a fashionable novel. As soon as I picked up my pen, he would leap upon the desk, and watch attentively the steel nib scribbling away on the paper, moving his head every time I began a new line. Sometimes he endeavoured to collaborate with me, and would snatch the pen out of my hand, no doubt with the intention of writing in his turn, for he was as aesthetic a cat as Hoffmann's Murr. Indeed, I strongly suspect ...
— My Private Menagerie - from The Works of Theophile Gautier Volume 19 • Theophile Gautier
... began to arrive,—some with smallish fruit to sell, some with smaller news to give. Nobody knew whether Washington was taken. Nobody knew whether Jeff. Davis was now spitting in the Presidential spittoon, and scribbling his distiches with the nib of the Presidential goose-quill. We were absolutely in doubt whether a seemingly inoffensive knot of rustics, on a mound without the inclosure, might not, at tap of drum, unmask a battery of giant columbiads, and belch blazes at us, raking ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 44, June, 1861 • Various
... secret agent carefully cleaned the ink from the pen, wiping it dry with his handkerchief, then thrust it into the half empty glass of milk. The fluid clung to the steel nib thinly; he went on writing with it, ...
— Elusive Isabel • Jacques Futrelle
... what if my father was born out of wedlock, is the blood not the same? Does the breed dwindle down for want of a gold ring and priest? Look at me. No; not what I now am; not even as you saw me five years ago; but as I leapt into youth! Was I born to cast sums and nib pens as a City clerk? Aha, my poor father, you were wrong there! Blood will out! Mad devil, indeed, is a racer in a citizen's gig! Spavined, and wind-galled, and foundered—let the brute go at last to the knockers; but by his eye, and his pluck, and his bone, the brute ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... wide arc of the egg-shaped tube was a concave platinum cathode, at the narrow arc a nib of some sort, ending in a socket. From this socket, two heavy insulated wires extended sixty feet or so across the sand to the secondary unit of the mechanism, which was roughly a series of resistance coils, resembling those in ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930 • Various
... Pond spat his boredom at these useless questions into a far corner. "He was always a bit of a nib, was Charley. After he'd finished the day's work he'd put on a suit o' dark duds, a white collar, a watch on his wrist, an' all that bunko. Then we'd play poker or billiards till half-past eight, ...
— Malcolm Sage, Detective • Herbert George Jenkins
... ye," returned the ruffler, stroking his chin—"one may see that he's no half swell by the care with which he cultivates the best gifts of nature, his whiskers. He's a rank nib."[30] ...
— Rookwood • William Harrison Ainsworth
... arts and inspiration of them,—waited on the nib of the pen, such talk as passed between these two could not be written. Some things—and those not the least profound and admirable of life—transcend the cunning of man to interpret them, unless to an apprehension as fine as they! We are fain to ...
— Idolatry - A Romance • Julian Hawthorne
... wait—how long ago I am afraid to think—but certainly I must not make this note very long. I did intend to write to you to-day in any case. Since Saturday I have had my thanks ready at the end of my fingers waiting to slide along to the nib of my pen. Thank you for all your kindness and criticism, which is kindness too—thank you at last. Would that I deserved the praises as well as I do most of the findings-fault—and there is no time now to say more of them. Yet I believe I have something to say, and will find a ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon
... up the latter alternative; if there was a hope of comfort for any moment, the heart or head of no human being in this house could yield it; only under the lid of my desk could it harbour, nestling between the leaves of some book, gilding a pencil-point, the nib of a pen, or tinging the black fluid in that ink-glass. With a heavy heart I opened my desk-lid; with a weary hand I turned up ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte
... a shame! I can't write with a Waverley!" protested Raymonde in much indignation. "It'll spoil my whole exam. I call that tyranny! Look here! I'm not going to be done! I shall send for a fountain pen with a broad nib. I saw one advertised in ...
— The Madcap of the School • Angela Brazil
... says to Harshaw and me, who are looking over her shoulder, "that would be the size of him in my sketch." She points to the marginal pencil-mark, which is not longer than the nib of a stub-pen. "I can't make a little black dot like that look ...
— A Touch Of Sun And Other Stories • Mary Hallock Foote
... to join the group. Pinned to the board with an old pen-nib was a half-sheet of scribbling-paper, and inscribed thereon, in what was evidently a disguised handwriting, were some verses, which were seen at once to refer to the previous afternoon's defeat. They ...
— The Triple Alliance • Harold Avery
... from the child Clara, which Miss Ingamells had certainly overheard, prevented him, as an independent man, from beginning his work for at least ten minutes. He whistled, opened his father's desk and stared vacantly into it, examined the pen-nib case in detail, and tore off two leaves from the date calendar so that it should be ready for Monday. He had a great scorn for Miss Ingamells, who was a personable if somewhat heavy creature of twenty-eight, because she kept company with a young man. He had caught them arm-in-arm and practically ...
— Clayhanger • Arnold Bennett
... but he watched his chum thoughtfully until the door had closed behind him. Then he dug frowningly for a moment with the nib of a pen in the blotter and finally shook his head and went back ...
— Left End Edwards • Ralph Henry Barbour
... sentence, and looked up impatiently at the intruder on his desperate hurry. Then he motioned Tyrrel into a chair with an imperious wave of his ivory penholder. After that, he went on writing for some moments in solemn silence. Only the sound of his steel nib, traveling fast as it could go over the foolscap sheet, broke for several seconds ...
— Michael's Crag • Grant Allen
... to 94), placed there by Ki/tshi Man/id[-o]. When the Otter approached the entrance (No. 95) he was again arrested in his progress by two evil man/id[-o]s (Nos. 96 and 97), who opposed his admission, but Mi/nib[-o]/zho overcame them and the Otter entered. Just inside of the door, and on each side, the Otter saw a post (Nos. 98 and 99), and at the western door or exit two corresponding posts (Nos. 100 and 101). ...
— The Mide'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa • Walter James Hoffman
... fiercely, making a thick black mark; he pushed it until the nib stuck, spluttered, and broke as he flung out both hands as if grasping at something which ...
— Leonie of the Jungle • Joan Conquest
... viv-root case from an inner pocket, offered a choice of contents to Vye, who gave an instant and suspicious refusal by shake of head. The officer selected one of the small tubes, snapped off the protecto-nib, and set it between his lips for a satisfying and lengthy pull. Then the panel of the cabin door pushed open, and Vye sat up with a jerk as Ras Hume, his head banded with ...
— Star Hunter • Andre Alice Norton |
