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Aim   /eɪm/   Listen
Aim

verb
(past & past part. aimed; pres. part. aiming)
1.
Point or cause to go (blows, weapons, or objects such as photographic equipment) towards.  Synonyms: direct, take, take aim, train.  "He trained his gun on the burglar" , "Don't train your camera on the women" , "Take a swipe at one's opponent"
2.
Propose or intend.  Synonyms: propose, purport, purpose.
3.
Move into a desired direction of discourse.  Synonyms: drive, get.
4.
Specifically design a product, event, or activity for a certain public.  Synonyms: calculate, direct.
5.
Intend (something) to move towards a certain goal.  Synonyms: direct, place, point, target.  "Criticism directed at her superior" , "Direct your anger towards others, not towards yourself"
6.
Direct (a remark) toward an intended goal.
7.
Have an ambitious plan or a lofty goal.  Synonyms: aspire, draw a bead on, shoot for.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Aim" Quotes from Famous Books



... fancy a rose-bug or juicy ant, he dashes to the leaf or grass-blade on which the insect is crawling, hovers a moment in the air to take aim, and then snatches the bug off. So clever is he that when he eats bees, as he sometimes does, he seldom takes the honey-makers, but mainly the drones; perhaps he ...
— Citizen Bird • Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues

... are over; at last the race is run, And we have gathered here to-night to say, "Our work is done." Members of this Society, our friends so kind and true, God bless you! 'Tis a grand and noble work you aim to do; Accept our heartfelt thanks, for it is all that we can give; The knowledge we have gathered here will ever, while we live Go with us, as with brighter skies our way in life to cope Than in our dreams and fancies we had ever dared to hope. And you, our teachers faithful, ...
— Silver Links • Various

... youth at once stepped forward, and old Mr Ravenshaw watched him with an approving smile as he took aim. Puff! went the powder in the pan, but no sound followed save the peal of laughter with which the miss-fire was greeted. The touch-hole was pricked, and next time the ball sped to its mark. It hit the target ...
— The Red Man's Revenge - A Tale of The Red River Flood • R.M. Ballantyne

... is the cause of these variations? This question is the most difficult of all physical problems, and we shall only aim at indicating the causes which are yet perhaps too intricately involved to afford a positive numerical determination. Admitting the existence of two principal solid masses whose general direction is from south ...
— Outlines of a Mechanical Theory of Storms - Containing the True Law of Lunar Influence • T. Bassnett

... whether I did right or not. Even time will mix things up so that I'll never be able to tell. Maybe some day God will let me see. But why should he? One can only aim right, ...
— The Shepherd of the North • Richard Aumerle Maher

... discharge the other gun, and it was swung round and brought to bear on the two boats advancing towards the prizes, the men in which were pulling with the most desperate haste. Flint took careful aim this time, and the gun was discharged. The shrapnel with which it was charged did not knock the boat to pieces as a solid shot might have done, but two of the oars were seen to drop into the water, and both boats began to retreat, ...
— On The Blockade - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray Afloat • Oliver Optic

... secret aim then in George Eliot which made her believe so firmly in the permanent influence of Humanity, and in the annihilation of personal existence? Was the tendency of temperament developed by her ...
— Cobwebs of Thought • Arachne

... up—the general was absorbed in his correspondence. The bootblack drew a tin putty-blower from his pocket, took unerring aim, and nailed in a single shot the minute hand to the dial. Going on with his blacking, yet stopping ever and anon to glance over the general's plan of campaign, spread on the table before him, he was at last interrupted by the ...
— The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales • Bret Harte

... men's actions and courses flow into one ocean of divine glory and mutual edification, so that there could not have been any disturbance or jarring amongst them, all flowing into one common end. But self-love hath turned all the channels backward towards itself, and this is its wretched aim and endeavour, in which it wearies itself, and discomposes the world, to wind and turn in every thing, and to make, in the end, a general affluence of the streams into its own bosom. This is the seed of all division and confusion which is among ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning

... in the face was the thrown-away match. But for the unerring aim of the town marksman great events would never have happened. A tomato is a trivial thing (though it is possible that the man whom it hits may not think so), but in the present case, it was the direct cause of ...
— Mike • P. G. Wodehouse

... not earned his name without reason. Having taken aim at the bulldog jumping up and down against the trunk of the pear tree, nothing but a solid wall could ...
— The Corner House Girls at School • Grace Brooks Hill

... of the reflection mentioned, just as we quarrel over the exact connotations of Plato's and Aristotle's word, imitation. Even if we hold to the narrower meaning of imitation, there are a few poets who intimate that imitation alone is their aim in writing poetry. Denying that life has an ideal element, they take pains to mirror it, line for line, and blemish for blemish. How can they meet Plato's question as to their usefulness? If life is a hideous, meaningless thing, as they insinuate, it is not clear ...
— The Poet's Poet • Elizabeth Atkins

... kept in view by them—one of which, the establishment of a republic, was dearer to one section of the malcontents; separation from England, with the contingency of annexation to France, was the more immediate aim of the other, though the present existence of a republican form of government in France to a great extent united the two. As has been mentioned before, the original movers in the conspiracy were of low extraction, Dublin tradesmen in a small way of business. Napper Tandy was an ironmonger, Wolfe ...
— The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860 • Charles Duke Yonge

... each commissioner responsible for one or more policy areas) note: the European Council brings together heads of state and government and the president of the European Commission and meets at least twice a year; its aim is to provide the impetus for the major political issues relating to European integration and to ...
— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... stranger raise his own bow. Nor did he seem to take aim but let the arrow fly. And the arrow carried the twig and leaf ...
— In the Court of King Arthur • Samuel Lowe

... himself and struggling—faint and well-nigh exhausted—from the knives of the drunken brace of rascals who had been left to guard him. A pistol in the hands of one of this pair was pointed with an unsteady aim at the officer as he entered, but the ball struck the empty rum-bottle on the table and flew wide of its mark; and before the smoke of the powder had cleared away, a sword and cutlass had passed through and through both their bodies, and they fell dead ...
— Captain Brand of the "Centipede" • H. A. (Henry Augustus) Wise

... a safe-deposit vault his inside waistcoat pocket, the lock upon which was a huge safety-pin. For further defense he carried a revolver loosely hung at his hip, and easily reached. His quickness on the draw in the hour of need, and his accuracy of aim made him a ...
— The Round-up - A Romance of Arizona novelized from Edmund Day's melodrama • John Murray and Marion Mills Miller

... equilibrium between farm prices and the prices of industrial products is an aim which we must keep ever before us, just as we must give constant thought to the sufficiency of the food supply of the nation even in bad years. Our modern civilization can and should devise a more successful means by which the excess supplies of bumper years can be conserved for ...
— The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Franklin Delano Roosevelt

... substantially nothing, and in employing his surplus wealth for further purchases of land and in investments in other profitable channels. No scruples of any kind did he allow to interfere with his constant aim of increasing his fortune. His indifference to compunctions was shown in many ways, not the least in his open support of notoriously corrupt city ...
— History of the Great American Fortunes, Vol. I - Conditions in Settlement and Colonial Times • Myers Gustavus

... as easily as a girl reads a novel. I know men who can count one hundred head of mixed cattle, as they leave a corral, or trail along, and not only classify them but also give you every brand correctly. Now, that's the kind of cowmen I aim to make out of you boys, and to-morrow morning you must get these brands ...
— Wells Brothers • Andy Adams

... of the program of the other, then it will be difficult to distinguish longer between churchmen and social workers. The two groups will, in fact, join hands, and by unifying and coordinating efforts will work more effectively in attaining a common aim. The basis, then, for the program for the church which will touch all phases of human interest in a vital way is that every human interest has its effect on the welfare of the soul. And a program that fails to take into account every approach ...
— Church Cooperation in Community Life • Paul L. Vogt

... Funds were raised and arms were supplied to the anti-Bolshevik forces in European Russia and Siberia. At the height of the counter-Bolshevik crusade there were sixteen armies in Soviet Russia with the common aim of destroying Bolshevism and restoring the country to its previous status as one of the pillars of western civilization. This military phase of the counter-revolution lasted for four years. It failed. ...
— Civilization and Beyond - Learning From History • Scott Nearing

... "Christians," or "disciples of Christ," while they call the churches, "churches of Christ" or "churches of God." They do not use these names in a sectarian, but in a Scriptural, sense. They do not claim to be the "only Christians," but aim to be "Christians only." We read in Acts II:26, "The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." "If any man suffer as a Christian," says Peter, "let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God ...
— To Infidelity and Back • Henry F. Lutz

... England, nevermore Prate thou of generous effort, righteous aim! So ran the lines, and left me very sore, For you may guess my heart was hot with shame: Even thus early in your ample song I felt that something ...
— The Battle of the Bays • Owen Seaman

... the subject matter will not be conventional, the chief aim being to present to the readers a living, marching personality breathing with the individuality characteristic of ...
— Robert Louis Stevenson • E. Blantyre Simpson

... of the place or the people, I cannot tell, but great feet had been the fashion there time immemorial, and the higher the family the larger were they. It was, therefore, the aim of everybody above the degree of shepherds, and such-like rustics, to swell out and enlarge their feet by way of gentility; and so successful were they in these undertakings that, on a pinch, respectable people's slippers would have ...
— Junior Classics, V6 • Various

... got nothing worth having without a struggle. Bob rejoined: "If you get the thing you aim at, the struggle's justified; if you don't you think of what you've missed while you were uselessly employed. Of course, if you like a struggle, you have the satisfaction of following your bent; but hustling is a habit that has ...
— The Girl From Keller's - Sadie's Conquest • Harold Bindloss

... which the christian statesman will aim at reforming mankind, and making them happy, while at the same time he will be gaining the highest of all glory to himself, both in time and eternity, are christian instruction and religious education. A ...
— Australia, its history and present condition • William Pridden

... that not a twentieth part of the nation is out of the pale of the Established Church. The English clergy have retained a great number of the Romish ceremonies, and especially that of receiving, with a most scrupulous attention, their tithes. They also have the pious ambition to aim at superiority. ...
— Letters on England • Voltaire

... use these acquirements for the earning of money; little as she knew of his affairs, it was obviously to be taken for granted that he could ensure her life-long independence. Satisfactory, this; but latterly it had become a question with her how the independence was to be used, and no intelligible aim as yet presented itself to her roving mind. All she knew was, that she wished to live, and not merely to vegetate. Now there are so many ways of living, and Nancy felt no distinct vocation for ...
— In the Year of Jubilee • George Gissing

... a game of skill peculiar to them. They put a tack into a whiplash, and then, whirling it round and round, drove it to the head in a target marked out on the weather-boarding. Some of them had a perfect aim; and in fact it was a very pretty feat, ...
— A Boy's Town • W. D. Howells

... viceroyalty of India, now so much lessened by the division into three governments, his great aim was to acquire riches, as he was poor, and had several children. With this view he endeavoured to prevail on Antonio Moniz Barreto, the newly appointed governor of Malacca, to be satisfied with a smaller force than had been ordered for him on going to assume ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr

... north had been pretty well scattered. The Russian forces were now holding a front of nearly a thousand miles, with about two million men. The Russian right center, which now protected Warsaw from the new attack could hardly number more than two hundred thousand men. Von Hindenburg's aim was Warsaw only, and did not affect directly the Russian advance to Cracow, which was still going on. Indeed, by the end of the first week in December, General Dmitrieff had cavalry in the suburbs of Cracow, and his main ...
— History of the World War - An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War • Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish

... that he was not hampered by governments at home. Every modern commander, down certainly to the present moment, must have envied him. Kinglake's mordant pen depicts with felicity and compression the men of Downing Street, who without military experience or definite political aim, thwarted, criticised, over- ruled, tormented, their much-enduring General. We have Aberdeen, deficient in mental clearness and propelling force, by his horror of war bringing war to pass; Gladstone, of too ...
— Biographical Study of A. W. Kinglake • Rev. W. Tuckwell

... Lotze for a German series analogous to Blackwood's Philosophical Classics, which is to be issued under his direction. Professor Falckenberg's general philosophical position may be described as that of moderate idealism. His historical method is strictly objective, the aim being a free reproduction of the systems discussed, as far as possible in their original terminology and historical connection, and without ...
— History Of Modern Philosophy - From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time • Richard Falckenberg

... Ergocles, fellow Athenians, will not attempt to defend himself about Halicarnassus, and his office, and what he has done, but lie will say that he came from Phyle, and was on the democratic side, and shared your dangers. But I, fellow Athenians, think otherwise about these things. 13. But those who aim for freedom and justice, and wish to strengthen the laws, and hate wrong-doers I do not call bad citizens, nor do I say that the exile of the party may not be fairly taken into account; but against ...
— The Orations of Lysias • Lysias

... acted for the prosecution had secured some fellows "of the baser sort" who testified that they had seen Mark Carter buying a gun, that they had seen him creep softly to the window, peer into the room, and take aim. They had been on their way home, had seen Mark steal along in a very suspicious manner and had followed him to find out what it meant. There were three of them; fellows whom Mark had refused to play against on a County team because they were what is called "dirty" ...
— The City of Fire • Grace Livingston Hill

... been completed for holding at the Piscicultural Hall, Kensington, an exhibition, the aim of which is to impart instruction in the art of living in the country. Such assistance is of the highest value, since many persons otherwise capable enough are unable to manage rural ways at once or deal with even such ordinary difficulties as neighbours' ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 1, 1914 • Various

... a man. Study to do faithfully whatsoever thing in your actual situation, there and now, you find either expressly or tacitly laid to your charge; that is your post; stand in it like a true soldier. Silently devour the many chagrins of it, as all human situations have many; and see you aim not to quit it without doing all that it, at least, required of you. A man perfects himself by work much more than by reading. They are a growing kind of men that can wisely combine the two things—wisely, valiantly, ...
— On the Choice of Books • Thomas Carlyle

... discover, that your aim is to torture me, for relinquishing a beloved object, whom you are, at this moment, attaching to yourself;—to know, that a diabolical disposition, for which I cannot account, prompts you to come here, without the probability of benefiting ...
— John Bull - The Englishman's Fireside: A Comedy, in Five Acts • George Colman

... at hearing the crack of a gun, and feeling the tingling of a bullet whizzing past my ear. You nearly made me into a real ghost, friend Beppo; for I assure you, you are a capital shot. Ever since that memorable aim, I have entertained the deepest respect for you as a marksman; it was not your fault that I am here now to make this confession. I ducked my head below the wall in case a volley was to follow the signal gun. When I peeped again, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 2, December, 1857 • Various

... some swift impulse flung him, headlong, into the snow behind his pony, and even as he fell, his numbed fingers gripped for the revolver at his hip. The hidden marksman shot twice, evidently discerning only dim outlines at which to aim; the red flame of discharge cut the gloom like a knife. One ball hurtled past Hamlin's head; the other found billet in Wade's horse, and the stricken creature toppled over, bearing its dead burden with him. The Sergeant ripped off his glove, found the trigger with his half-frozen ...
— Molly McDonald - A Tale of the Old Frontier • Randall Parrish

... places; articles upon men of note, and upon the habits of different peoples; essays upon household and social topics; articles of travel and adventure; scientific and industrial articles written in a graphic and popular style. In brief, the aim is to be comprehensive, including in its plan all branches of literature and all themes of interest to intelligent ...
— The Electoral Votes of 1876 - Who Should Count Them, What Should Be Counted, and the Remedy for a Wrong Count • David Dudley Field

... retire. 500 But HUDIBRAS advanc'd to's aid, And rouz'd his spirits, half dismay'd. He wisely doubting lest the shot Of th' enemy, now growing hot, Might at a distance gall, press'd close, 505 To come pell-mell to handy-blows, And, that he might their aim decline, Advanc'd still in an oblique line; But prudently forbore to fire, Till breast to breast he had got nigher, 510 As expert warriors use to do When hand to hand they charge their foe. This order the advent'rous Knight, Most soldier-like, observ'd in fight, ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler

... passion in his brother's voice, drew off, and flung the egg with all his might at Elsie. Luckily for her, it missed its aim and whizzed past, striking some article with ...
— A Flock of Girls and Boys • Nora Perry

... "Mademoiselle is standing beside me, and Brutus is between you and me and approaching you. I think it would be safer if you put the pistol down. One's aim is uncertain in the dark, and, after all, it is not Mademoiselle's quarrel. Tell him to put down the ...
— The Unspeakable Gentleman • John P. Marquand

... town by several members of Mr. Durnford's church. But, about a year previous to the change in his circumstances, he had been persuaded by the minister to transfer his services to the larger school. He always made the conversion of his scholars his chief aim; and very soon after he entered on his new sphere, one of the boys in his class, a bright little fellow about nine years old, named Willie Raynor, had been very remarkably converted to God. The boy was promising to become a very thorough-going ...
— The Golden Shoemaker - or 'Cobbler' Horn • J. W. Keyworth

... only put down his views and ideas, but had given his actual words. Yet, as a matter of fact, Senior had done nothing of the kind. He had not even tried to do so. What he had aimed at was something very different. His aim was to give the spirit of the conversation, to produce the extreme characteristic impression made on his mind by the talk of his interlocutor, not the ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey

... is glorified on earth and in heaven, and this is the first and chief aim of every created thing. Through this threefold kingdom we gain salvation, happiness and eternal life. That this threefold dominion of God may come to us and to all mankind we ask the Father in heaven in ...
— The Excellence of the Rosary - Conferences for Devotions in Honor of the Blessed Virgin • M. J. Frings

... musical genius as mathematics, philosophy, and logic are to that of the scientific and literary man. He at once saw and appreciated the marvellous powers of Johann van Beethoven's son, and adopted a plan with him, whose aim was, not to make him a mere youthful prodigy, but a great musician and composer in manhood. That, with this end in view, he should have criticized the boy's crude compositions with some severity was perfectly natural; equally so that the petted and bepraised boy should have felt these ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 7, May, 1858 • Various

... was looking into the muzzle of a revolver with a fixed fascination. Jack Meredith exhibited no haste. He did not seem yet to have realised the gravity of the situation. He took very careful aim and pulled the trigger. A little puff of white smoke floated over their heads. The broad-shouldered man with the aggressive head looked stupidly surprised. He turned towards his supporters with a pained look of inquiry, as if there was something he did not quite ...
— With Edged Tools • Henry Seton Merriman

... pain and ridicule shall befall him. For he, standing on the doorsteps to grace the departure, is suddenly caught a most prodigious thump on the side of his head with a heavy shoe, which a Buffer in the hall, champagne-flushed and wild of aim, has borrowed on the spur of the moment from the pastrycook's porter, to cast after the departing pair as an ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens

... place of the wounded general. He gave orders to halt." Here he would naturally refer to colonel, though general intervenes. A conjunction will often show that a pronoun refers to the subject of the preceding sentence, and not to another intervening noun. "The sentinel at once took aim at the approaching soldier, and fired. He then retreated to give ...
— How to Write Clearly - Rules and Exercises on English Composition • Edwin A. Abbott

... to the Hebrews, with an aim simple and altogether practical for heart and for life. Let us take it just as it stands, and somewhat as a whole. We will not discuss its authorship, interesting and extensive as that problem is. We will ...
— Messages from the Epistle to the Hebrews • Handley C.G. Moule

... by our senses to the unity of a single principle; but the partial solution of the problem—the tendency towards a general comprehension of the phenomena of the universe—does not the less continue to be the high and enduring aim of all natural investigation. ...
— The World's Greatest Books - Volume 15 - Science • Various

... sermon because of an erroneous illustration; and yet sometimes all the essentials of the Scriptures are discounted because of flaws no more consequential than that suggested in this illustration. The Scriptures aim to declare a certain idea of God, a certain idea of man, and a certain idea of the relations between God and man. Those ideas are clothed in the garments of successive ages. The change in the fashions and adequacy of the garments does not make worthless the living truth which the garments clothe. ...
— Understanding the Scriptures • Francis McConnell

... preparation of this book I have tried to keep constantly before me the conditions of the average farm in the Northeastern States with its small apple orchard. It has been my aim to set down only such facts as would be of practical value to an owner of such a farm and to state these facts in the plain language of experience. This book is in no sense intended as a final scientific treatment of the subject, and if it is of any value in helping to make the fruit ...
— Apple Growing • M. C. Burritt

... is to teach; but there is an object, sometimes demanding attention, and not incongruous, which, nevertheless, cannot be said properly to belong to them, or to be more than occasional. As there are kinds of eloquence which do not aim at any thing beyond their own exhibition, and are content with being eloquent, and with the sensation which eloquence creates; so in Schools and Universities there are seasons, festive or solemn, anyhow extraordinary, ...
— The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: In Nine - Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin • John Henry Newman

... rifle slowly. Yet slow and cautious as he was, the antelope's head went up sharply. So did Butler's rifle. He took quick aim and pulled the trigger. The report of his shot went crashing from wall to wall, like ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in Alaska - The Gold Diggers of Taku Pass • Frank Gee Patchin

... audience has become less exacting, less critical, and does not aim to improve the artist, by counting his defects. According to my opinion, the old system was best, as it is not in excessive indulgence and solely by considering the good qualities, without correcting the bad ones, that real artists ...
— [19th Century Actor] Autobiographies • George Iles

... transferring his alliance on this occasion. In the first place, a box car which is reeling and pitching to and fro, from side to side, is not a very good shooting platform—even for a snapshot like Lefty Joe. Also, the pitch darkness in the car would be a further annoyance to good aim. And in the third and most decisive place, if he were to miss his first shot he would not be extremely apt to place his second bullet. For Donnegan had a reputation with his own revolver. Indeed, it was said that he rarely carried the weapon, because when he did he was always ...
— Gunman's Reckoning • Max Brand

... to play fifty or sixty little pieces, which I have written for this purpose. They are short, rhythmically balanced, agreeable, and striking to the ear, and aim to develop gradually an increased mechanical skill. I require them to be learned by heart, and often to be transposed into other keys; in which way the memory, which is indispensable for piano playing, is unconsciously greatly increased. They must be learned perfectly and played ...
— Piano and Song - How to Teach, How to Learn, and How to Form a Judgment of - Musical Performances • Friedrich Wieck

... devastating effects of the British fire. "Poor devils!" he writes of the German infantry. "They advanced in companies of quite 150 men in files five deep, and our rifle has a flat trajectory up to 600 yards. Guess the result. We could steady our rifles on the trench and take deliberate aim. The first company were mown down by a volley at 700 yards, and in their insane formation every bullet was almost sure to find two billets. The other companies kept advancing very slowly, using their dead comrades as cover, but they had absolutely no chance.... ...
— Tommy Atkins at War - As Told in His Own Letters • James Alexander Kilpatrick

... his arm, hurling the heavy stick straight at his young adversary's head. Phil, observing the movement let drive his own tent stake, but having to throw so hurriedly, his aim was poor. Red Larry's aim, on the other hand was better. Phil dodged like ...
— The Circus Boys Across The Continent • Edgar B. P. Darlington

... thinks I'm not in style, eh? . . . Well, I'll tell you something: he's right, in a way. And in another way he isn't. The reason why I'm not in style is because I always aim to keep five years ahead ...
— The Tale of Ferdinand Frog • Arthur Scott Bailey

... the work to the terminus that had been the aim from the first, namely, the lowest level of the floor, which was thus shown to be only a foot above the solid rock instead of at least 10 or 12 feet as the general appearance of the entrance and its surroundings had indicated. It was completely cleaned off as far as ...
— Archeological Investigations - Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 76 • Gerard Fowke

... themselves no precise object. It would be difficult to depict in words the ingredients and hues of that phantom which haunted me. A hand invisible and of preternatural strength, lifted by human passions, and selecting my life for its aim, were parts of this terrific image. All places were alike accessible to this foe; or, if his empire were restricted by local bounds, those bounds were utterly inscrutable by me. But had I not been told, by some one in league with this enemy, ...
— Stories by Modern American Authors • Julian Hawthorne

... they'd have looked with curls!" said Helen. "The question is, are you going to aim at beauty ...
— The Voyage Out • Virginia Woolf

... cut with the sword of strength at the giant's head, but, somehow, missing his aim, cut off the nose instead, clean as a whistle! My goodness! How the giant roared! It was like claps of thunder, and he began to lay about him with the knotted iron club, like one possessed. But Jack in his coat of darkness easily dodged the blows, and running in behind, drove ...
— English Fairy Tales • Flora Annie Steel

... the lantern from the hook where it hung, and swung it around, extinguishing the feeble flame at once. And then, as Raymond with a roar of rage started toward them, he flung the lantern straight at him. A cry of pain told him that his aim had been true, even in the darkness, and then he leaped up the stairs after Arthur, who was already fumbling at the bolt. In a moment they were through the door and had burst into the midst of the astonished ...
— The Belgians to the Front • Colonel James Fiske

... other, I have been a typical American, regarding my country as the happy hunting-ground of enlightened self-interest, as a function of my desires. Whether or not I have completely got rid of this romantic virus I must leave to those the aim of whose existence is to eradicate it from our literature and our ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... money to be made easy.... But I hain't no fool. I don't know you, mister." Scattergood became very cunning. "I don't know this here girl very well—though I kinder took to her at the first. I'm a-goin' cautious. I might git smouged.... What I aim to do is to go careful till I git on to the ropes and know who to trust.... Hain't goin' to put all my money in at the first go-off. No, siree. Goin' to try it first kind of small, and if it shows all right, ...
— Scattergood Baines • Clarence Budington Kelland

... easy shot. Yet the bullet went several inches above the obligingly waiting dog's back. Nine men out of ten, shooting by moonlight or by flashlight, aim too high. The thief had heard this old marksman-maxim fifty times. But, like most hearers of maxims, he had forgotten it at the one time in his speckled career when it might have been of any ...
— Further Adventures of Lad • Albert Payson Terhune

... numbers of them falling before they could effect a retreat. The charge of the bulls, on which so much reliance had been placed, proved an equal failure, and with wild shouts the freebooters advanced, firing rapidly and with an accuracy of aim that soon strewed the ground ...
— Historical Tales - The Romance of Reality - Volume III • Charles Morris

... him err: nor would we work for fame; Though she perhaps might reap the applause of Great, Who earns the one POU STO whence after-hands May move the world, though she herself effect But little: wherefore up and act, nor shrink For fear our solid aim be dissipated By frail successors. Would, indeed, we had been, In lieu of many mortal flies, a race Of giants living, each, a thousand years, That we might see our own work out, and watch The sandy ...
— The Princess • Alfred Lord Tennyson

... criminals; they make no direct, pungent, earnest appeal to the consciences of men-stealers; by consenting to walk arm-in-arm with them, they virtually agree to abstain from all offensive remarks, and to aim entirely at the expulsion of the free people of color; their lugubrious exclamations, and solemn animadversions, and reproachful reflections, are altogether indefinite; they 'go about, and about, and all the way round to nothing;' they generalize, ...
— Thoughts on African Colonization • William Lloyd Garrison

... instantly set spurs to his horse, and fled to the sea-shore. Others declared that the King and Sir Walter Tyrrel were hunting in company, a little before sunset, standing in bushes opposite one another, when a stag came between them. That the King drew his bow and took aim, but the string broke. That the King then cried, 'Shoot, Walter, in the Devil's name!' That Sir Walter shot. That the arrow glanced against a tree, was turned aside from the stag, and struck the King from ...
— A Child's History of England • Charles Dickens

... this man Had but a mind allied unto his words, How blest a fate were it to us, and Rome! We could not think that state for which to change, Although the aim were our old liberty: The ghosts of those that fell for that, would grieve Their bodies lived not, now, again to serve. Men are deceived, who think there can be thrall Beneath a virtuous prince: Wish'd liberty Ne'er lovelier looks, than under such ...
— Sejanus: His Fall • Ben Jonson

... coon in the tree, when he saw Colonel Crockett taking aim at him," added Frank: "says the coon, 'Don't shoot! If it's you, colonel, I'll come down!' And I tell ye," cried the boy, enthusiastically, "there's something besides a joke in it. Jeff'll be glad to come down out of his tree, before we hang him ...
— The Drummer Boy • John Trowbridge

... inspiring our future citizens while they are boys and girls with the spirit of true patriotism as against the spirit of rank selfishness, the anti-social spirit of the man who declines to take into account any other interest than his own; whose one aim and ideal is personal success. Women both in public and at home, by letting the men know what they think, and by putting it before the children, can make familiar the idea of conservation, and support it with a convincingness that nobody else ...
— The Fight For Conservation • Gifford Pinchot

... his particular calling; the more he reads and learns, the more will he find that seemingly useless things "pay" in the end, and that what apparently pays least, often really pays most in the long run. This is not the only or the best reason why every man should aim at the highest possible cultivation of his own talents, be they what they may; but it is in itself a very good reason, and it is a sufficient answer for those who would deter us from study of any high kind on the ground that it "does no good." Telford found in ...
— Biographies of Working Men • Grant Allen

... if it were a duel between him and you to the death—his aim to injure me, and yours to defend us. And now it has ended. Maria will breathe more freely when she hears the news, for, gay and light hearted as she is, the dread of that man ...
— The Lion of Saint Mark - A Story of Venice in the Fourteenth Century • G. A. Henty

... compliance with what was represented as the popular desire (urged on with all possible vehemence and earnestness by the Jacobins) have appeared flat and languid, feeble and evasive. They appeared to aim only at gaining time. They never entered into the peculiar and distinctive character of the war. They spoke neither to the understanding nor to the heart. Cold as ice themselves, they never could kindle in our breasts a spark of that zeal which is necessary to a conflict with an adverse ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. V. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... never extended to America, even in thought. Of that policy Kossuth said: "It is already long ago that Czar Alexander of Russia declared that henceforth governments should have no particular policy, but only a common one, the policy of safety to all governments; as if governments were the aim for which nations exist, and not nations the ...
— Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 1 • George Boutwell

... abstract possibility of mind being the cause of matter. "Nay, possibly, if we would emancipate ourselves from vulgar notions, and raise our thoughts as far as they would reach to a closer contemplation of things, we might be able to aim at some dim and seeming conception how matter might at first be made and begin to exist by the power of that eternal first being.... But you will say, Is it not impossible to admit of the making anything out of nothing, since we cannot possibly conceive it? I answer—No; because it is not reasonable ...
— A Candid Examination of Theism • George John Romanes

... and hiring the latter out at distances too great to admit of their meeting, except at long intervals, is a marked feature of the cruelty and barbarity of the slave system. But it is in harmony with the grand aim of slavery, which, always and everywhere, is to reduce man to a level with the brute. It is a successful method of obliterating{29 "OLD MASTER"} from the mind and heart of the slave, all just ideas of the sacredness of ...
— My Bondage and My Freedom • Frederick Douglass

... Rocinante's will, which carried along with it that of his master, not to say that of the ass, which always followed him wherever he led, lovingly and sociably; nevertheless they returned to the high road, and pursued it at a venture without any other aim. ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... on the wind. Her attitude and air were those of Diana as she bent her good bow against the ravisher Orion. Her right foot advanced firmly, her right hand drawn back to the ear, her fine eye glaring upon the arrow which bore with unerring aim full on the breast of her own corrupter, her own ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 2 of 2) • Henry William Herbert

... such as are not very clear, or cannot well be preserv'd in our Tongue; and those are likewise to vindicate my Translation. Several of these I must own my self oblig'd to Madam Dacier for, or at least the hint, tho' some of 'em I cou'd not have miss'd of in the prosecution of those Designs I aim'd at. I have borrow'd little or nothing from any other, for her's are far the best Notes I ever met with, tho' many of 'em were done more to shew her Parts and Reading than for any real use, a thing which I ...
— Prefaces to Terence's Comedies and Plautus's Comedies (1694) • Lawrence Echard

... were elected every year. Each consul had to share his honor and authority with a colleague who enjoyed the same power as himself. Unless both agreed, there could be no action. Like the Spartan kings, [18] the consuls served as checks, the one on the other. Neither could safely use his position to aim ...
— EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY • HUTTON WEBSTER

... are worth telling. We ought to choose our truths as carefully as we choose our lies, and to select our virtues with as much thought as we bestow upon the selection of our enemies. Conceit is one of the greatest of the virtues, yet how few people recognise it as a thing to aim at and to strive after. In conceit many a man and woman has found salvation, yet the average person goes on all fours grovelling after modesty. You and I, Reggie, at least have found that salvation. We know ourselves as we are, and understand our own greatness. ...
— The Green Carnation • Robert Smythe Hichens

... excitement; it is a crude substitute for romance. If a boy is debarred from good romance, because he doesn't feel it or hasn't been taught to feel it, he will take to bad. It is nothing else at all: he is bored. And remembering that a boy can only think of one thing at a time, the single aim of the master should be to give every boy in his charge some sane interest which he can pursue to the death, as a terrier chases a smell, in and out, up and down, every nerve bent and quivering. There is a problem of the teaching art which the College at Spring Grove made ...
— Lore of Proserpine • Maurice Hewlett

... piece softly, holding the trigger the while, so that there should be no sharp click, and in another moment I should have fired, after careful aim, between the two bright glaring eyes, when the doctor made a movement, and the animal darted aside and went bounding off, just giving me a glimpse of its form, which was that of a ...
— Bunyip Land - A Story of Adventure in New Guinea • George Manville Fenn

... only aim is to line his nest with your feathers, some of which you have promised him, as, indeed, you were right to do. Now he has got wind of these jewels, which is not wonderful, seeing that such things cannot be hid. If you buried them in a coffin, six foot underground, still ...
— The Lady Of Blossholme • H. Rider Haggard

... for their defence neglected, some Provinces nearest the danger seduced, the rest by their defection astonished, and the enemy by their decay and confusions, strengthened. This is the scope whereto the doings of the French King, not without intelligence with the Spanish sovereign, doth aim, whatever ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... from the corner where I had been again placed, and joined the party. He placed himself behind a fence by which they must pass, and took such good aim with me that down fell a man every time ...
— Who Spoke Next • Eliza Lee Follen

... meaning and the necessity of war as an indispensable means of policy and of culture, and must inculcate the duty of personal sacrifice. To achieve that end the Government must have its own popular papers, whose aim it will be to stimulate patriotism, to preach loyalty to the Kaiser, to resist the ...
— German Problems and Personalities • Charles Sarolea

... Long habits of obedience and subordination coupled with the moral influence which in our country the white man possesses over the black, furnish an excellent foundation for that discipline which is the best guaranty of military efficiency. Our chief aim should be to secure their fidelity. There have been formidable armies composed of men having no interest in the cause for which they fought beyond their pay or the hope of plunder. But it is certain that the surest foundation upon which the fidelity of an army can rest, especially ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919 • Various

... spite of myself, I must confess to you that the thieves, I fancy, had only one aim in view when they entered my room, and that was to get hold of ...
— Messengers of Evil - Being a Further Account of the Lures and Devices of Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre

... he had made a capital shot, and I related to him the affair of the foolish fellow of our grenadiers who shot the savage at the landing at Louisbourg, altho' the distance was great, and the rolling of the boat so much against his taking a steady aim. "Oh! yes, says Captain Hazen, you know that a chance shot will ...
— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... pocket—across a handkerchief—without witnesses. Why invite witnesses when both of us would be walking in eternity in a couple of minutes? The pistols are loaded; we stretch the handkerchief and stand opposite one another. We aim the pistols at each other's hearts. Suddenly tears start to our eyes, our hands shake; we weep, we embrace—the battle is one of self-sacrifice now! The prince shouts, 'She is yours;' I cry, 'She is yours—' in a word, in a word—You've come to live ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... but of the forms of the intellect whereby it may be demonstrated; till they became the veriest word-splitters, rivals of the old sophists whom their master had attacked, and justified too often Aristophanes' calumny, which confounded Socrates with his opponents, as a man whose aim was to make the worse appear the ...
— Alexandria and her Schools • Charles Kingsley

... knew, as much as it was possible for him to love any woman; but he was still able to take a profound and healthy interest in his physical comfort. In one thing, however, they were passionately agreed, and that was that the aim and end of their marriage was to ...
— Life and Gabriella - The Story of a Woman's Courage • Ellen Glasgow

... comedy and rapier have to a great extent replaced farce and sword, finish is accounted of greater importance than of yore, and grace and daintiness are accepted where simple fun was formerly the aim—an aim, by the way, which was as frequently missed as now. Let the reader who is inclined to be as severe on latter-day Punch as on latter-day everything, take down one of the early volumes, ...
— The History of "Punch" • M. H. Spielmann

... deliberate aim at Little's back, drew the arrow to the head, and was about to loose it, when a woman's arm was flung ...
— Put Yourself in His Place • Charles Reade

... swooping down from highest heaven to the trembling earth. And of that fact the one end is one poor man's cry, and the other end is his deliverance. The moving spring of the divine manifestation was an individual's prayer; the aim of it was the individual's deliverance. A little water is put into a hydraulic ram at the right place, and the outcome is the lifting of tons. So the helpless men who could only pray are stronger than Herod and his quaternions and his chains and his gates. 'Prayer was made,' therefore all ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts • Alexander Maclaren

... from presenting here a treatise in the customary scientific style. We know, there are repetitions, digressions, excursions into adjacent fields that may be open to criticism. We really do not aim to make this critical review an exhibition of scholarly attainments with all the necessary brevity, clarity, scientific restraint and etiquette. Such style would be entirely out of our line. Any bookish flavor attaching itself to our work would ...
— Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome • Apicius

... strength, and then return with a force to destroy us! One of our number has already fallen; shall we not slay the captives over his dead body?" A fierce cry of assent rose from the others, as they fitted each a shaft to their bows and took deliberate aim at us as we were held fast by our captors. I saw the face of the queen grow pale as she rested her eyes, first upon the fallen Dhah and then upon us. Had men of her own race come that they might destroy the tribe which obeyed her slightest word? She made an imperative ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 25, January 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... defective in certain respects, which can only be satisfactorily improved with the progress of experience. The remarks of a writer in a recent number of a popular American magazine, Scribner's Monthly, may have some application to ourselves, when he says that there is now-a-days 'too decided an aim to train everybody to pass an examination in everything;' that the present system 'encourages two virtues—to forgive and forget, in time to forgive the examiner, and to forget the subject of the examination.' The present writer ...
— The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People • John George Bourinot

... passed Matautu were in the habit of firing on the shore, as like as not without particular aim, and more in high spirits than hostility. One of these shots pierced the house of a British subject near the consulate; the consul reported to Admiral Fairfax; and, on the morning of the 10th, the admiral despatched Captain Kane of the Calliope to Mulinuu. Brandeis ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 17 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... minutely his state, showing him the danger of his soul, the grounds of which I fully laid before him. When this, as formerly, greatly displeased him, I ceased to speak any more in this way, and from that time I aimed and still aim more and more to show him love in action, as it becomes a believing son, telling him only how happy I am—how I am supported under such and such trials—how I am not caring about certain things as formerly I did—in what ...
— A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Mueller - Written by Himself, First Part • George Mueller

... my business to him," went on Professor Robinson, "and henceforth shall aim to live more easily and enjoy the ...
— Walter Sherwood's Probation • Horatio Alger

... wither'd at the sight; Long had he aim'd the sunbeam to control, For light was hateful to his soul: "Go on!" cried the hellish one, yellow with spite, "Go on!" cried the hellish one, yellow with spleen, "Thy toils of the morning, like Ithaca's queen, I'll toil ...
— Rejected Addresses: or, The New Theatrum Poetarum • James and Horace Smith

... This is the spirit of domination of the clergy. Those priests who have the spirit of domination are ill-pleased when souls communicate directly and in the natural way with God, going to Him for counsel and direction. Their aim is righteous! Thus does the evil one deceive their conscience, which in its turn deceives; their aim is righteous. But they themselves wish to direct these souls, in the character of mediator, and the souls grow weary, timid, servile. Perhaps ...
— The Saint • Antonio Fogazzaro

... wonder?" asked Seaton, while the futile shells of the enemy continued to waste their force some hundreds of feet distant from their goal, and while Crane and DuQuesne were methodically destroying the huge vessels as fast as they could aim and fire. At every report one of the monster warships disappeared—its shattered fragments and the bodies of its crew hurtling to the ground. His voice could not be heard in even the lessened tumult, but ...
— The Skylark of Space • Edward Elmer Smith and Lee Hawkins Garby

... God that I can say My constant aim was Peace; I simply lived to see the Day (Den ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 9, 1914 • Various

... Korea at this time was simply an organized system of robbery and extortion—wearing not even the mask of justice. The undisguised aim of officialdom was to extort money from the people; and the aim of the high-born Korean youth (or yang-ban) was to pass the royal examination in Chinese classics, which was requisite to make him eligible for official position, and then join the horde of vampires ...
— A Short History of Russia • Mary Platt Parmele

... warning, they suddenly sprang to their feet with astonishing quickness, and with a loud and sharp whiff, whiff, whiff! one of them charged straight at me. I fired my right-hand barrel in his throat, as it was useless to aim at the head protected by two horns at the nose. This turned him, but had no other effect, and the two animals thundered off together at ...
— In the Heart of Africa • Samuel White Baker

... life at the Shop were pretty barbaric. The aim was to make it as much like barracks as possible. Each term was housed in a different side of the square of buildings which form the Academy, and the fourth term were spread among the houses of the other terms as corporals. ...
— A Student in Arms - Second Series • Donald Hankey

... labours to unite great finish, too minute finish, with breadth and boldness of effect. His is unquestionably a new style; his subjects are all pleasing, bordering on the poetical; we only question if his aim at minute finishing does not challenge a scrutiny into the accuracy and infinite variety of the detail of nature, that few pictures ought to require, and his certainly do not satisfy the demand. For, after all, there is a great sameness, where there ought to be variety, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 • Various

... defence of the descent of man in 1863, while Darwin's book on the subject did not appear till 1871? It is in order that we may clearly understand how it happened that from this time onwards Darwin and Huxley followed the same great aim in ...
— Evolution in Modern Thought • Ernst Haeckel

... intricate mechanism needing the same variety of agencies that is required for the well-being of a community. The chief aim is, of course, to defeat the enemy, and to do this an army must be prepared to move rapidly. Means of transport, so necessary in peace, are even more urgently needed in war. Thus Washington always needed military engineers to construct roads and bridges. Before the Revolution the ...
— Washington and his Comrades in Arms - A Chronicle of the War of Independence • George Wrong

... to repentance at a Fast, when their hearts would be most inclined that way. But when the first Roll was destroyed, the immediate occasion for which it was written was past, and the second Roll would naturally have a wider aim. It repeated the first, but in view of the additions to it seems to have been dictated with the purpose of giving a permanent form to all the fruits of Jeremiah's previous ministry. The battle of Carchemish ...
— Jeremiah • George Adam Smith

... such as is used for steaming suet puddings and brown bread. If you can with a steam-pressure canner or a pressure cooker, then steam the spinach there. If we boiled the spinach for fifteen or twenty minutes we would lose a quantity of the mineral salts, the very thing we aim to get into our systems when we eat spinach, dandelion greens, Swiss chard and other greens. After the blanching or ...
— Every Step in Canning • Grace Viall Gray

... wonderful? The blind, pathetic, energetic courage of the train as it steamed tinily away through the patterned levels to the sea's dimness, so fast and so energetic, made her weep. Where was it going? It was going nowhere, it was just going. So blind, so without goal or aim, yet so hasty! She sat on an old prehistoric earth-work and cried, and the tears ran down her face. The train had tunnelled all ...
— The Rainbow • D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

... Hilderman had scarcely opened the door when a huge, dark shadow seemed to fall out of the shed and envelop him. It was Sholto. Blind, and half-mad with fury, he sprang at Hilderman's throat with the unerring aim of his breed. The wretched man staggered ...
— The Mystery of the Green Ray • William Le Queux

... coincide. In this also alone did the Greek tragedy and comedy unite; in every thing else they were exactly opposed to each other. Tragedy is poetry in its deepest earnest; comedy is poetry in unlimited jest. Earnestness consists in the direction and convergence of all the powers of the soul to one aim, and in the voluntary restraint of its activity in consequence; the opposite, therefore, lies in the apparent abandonment of all definite aim or end, and in the removal of all bounds in the exercise of the mind,—attaining its real end, as an entire contrast, most perfectly, ...
— Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher • S. T. Coleridge

... building of railroads and the promoting of other enterprises of associated capital. But at the time of which I am writing, I had not had sufficient experience to suspect the motives of the men who encouraged our work in Utah; and I accepted in good faith their public declarations that the sole aim of the party was to serve the needs of the people of the United States—and therefore of the ...
— Under the Prophet in Utah - The National Menace of a Political Priestcraft • Frank J. Cannon and Harvey J. O'Higgins

... is to be found in the general diffusion of wealth, the comparative contentment and competency of the masses, and the general virtue and patriotism of the whole people. It should, therefore, manifestly be the end and aim of legislators to so shape the machinery placed in their hands as to operate with the least possible restraint upon the energies of the people. It should not be the studied purpose to enrich the few at the expense of the many, to restrain this ...
— Black and White - Land, Labor, and Politics in the South • Timothy Thomas Fortune

... fortune, or be of some trade. When such poor folks as we are wish to marry, the first thing they ought to think of, is how to live. But without reflecting on the meanness of your birth, and the little merit and fortune you have to recommend you, you aim at the highest pitch of exaltation; and your pretensions are no less than to demand in marriage the daughter of your sovereign, who with one single word can crush you to pieces. I say nothing of what respects yourself. I leave you ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous

... Pushkara, and the foot of Himavat. And he passed his days in those sacred regions, some of which were sacred for their water and others for their soil in the rigid observance of his vows, with singleness of aim, and his passions under complete control. And the Grandsire of all, Brahma, saw that ascetic with knotted hair, clad in rags, and his flesh, skin, and sinews dried up owing to the hard penances he was practising. And the Grandsire addressing ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa - Translated into English Prose - Adi Parva (First Parva, or First Book) • Kisari Mohan Ganguli (Translator)

... efforts, caught up his carbine, and fired—not without risk to Dorothy, for he was far too wrathful to take the aim that would have ensured her safety. But she rode on unhurt, meditating how to secure Upstill when she got him to Wyfern, whither she doubted not he would follow her. Her difficulties were not yet past, however, for just as she reached her own ground, ...
— St. George and St. Michael • George MacDonald

... extraordinary size, and for its plumage, so short and fine that it seems rather to be hair than feathers. I should have liked to have had it alive to ornament our poultry-yard, and it was so young we might have tamed it; but Fritz's unerring aim had killed it at once. I wished to let my wife see this rare bird, which, if standing on its webbed feet, would have been four feet high; I therefore forbade ...
— The Swiss Family Robinson; or Adventures in a Desert Island • Johann David Wyss



Words linked to "Aim" :   plan, designate, address, position, intend, final cause, hold, sake, range in, business, grail, specify, guidance, tack, sight, charge, be after, destine, think, goal, mind, zero in, end, mean, turn, cross-purpose, steering, home in, overshoot, way, idea, will, level, thing, direction, swing, view



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