"Ply" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... cardinals were led into a long gallery, along which had been built a range of closets. In each of these a cardinal was shut up, abundantly provided with food and drink. To each of the cardinals two conclavists were attached, whose duty it was to ply them with brandy, carry insulting messages from one to another, and induce them, as they grew tipsy, to bawl out all sorts of abuse of one another. To all this ribaldry the czar listened with delight, taking note at the same time of anything said of which he might make ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 8 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris
... Whole Seas of Rhume and moist Catarrs did lie, Which so bespauld the lower world, men see Corne blasted and the fruit of every tree; Aire was condenst to water gainst their wish, And all their foule was turn'd to flying Fish; Like watermen they throng'd to ply a fare, As though it had been navigable Aire. Beasts lost the naturall motion of each limbe, Forgott to goe with practiseing to swime: A trout now here you would not thinke how soone Taken and drest for th'Emperour o'the Moone, The fixed Starres, though to our ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Various
... bird When first her offspring from the nest essays The air, he hovered anxious, cheering on The boy to follow, and with fatal art Enjoining thus or thus his wings to ply As ...
— Van Dyck - A Collection Of Fifteen Pictures And A Portrait Of The - Painter With Introduction And Interpretation • Estelle M. Hurll
... the Venetian slats of the little window, and lo! our fine Baboo steps out of his slippers, and standing barefoot in the common dust of Cossitollah,—dust that has been churned by all the pigs'-feet that ply that promiscuous thoroughfare,— humbly touches first the vulgar ground and then his elegant turban, murmuring a pious Namaskarum; for the respectable accountant in the Honorable Company's coal office is, like Mutty Loll, a Kooleen Brahmin,—only a little more so. Caste is God, and Mamoul ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various
... along the plain which leaps. But though we slaughter, nor the work resign When stiff and wearied are each hand and spine, On field and mountain still the beasts are spied Plenteous as grasses in the summer tide; As at three points the fierce attack I ply, Seeing what numbers still remain to die, Captains, pick'd captains I with speed despatch, Who by the tail the spotted leopard catch, Crash to the brain the furious tiger's head, Grapple the bear so powerful and dread, The ancient sow, the ...
— Targum • George Borrow
... waving torch and tiny shout, The nimble foot they ply, And Fairy laughs are ringing out Beneath the midnight sky;— Then mortals hear the merry peals, And wonder at the sound, So like the chiming of harebells, When ...
— Home Pastimes; or Tableaux Vivants • James H. Head
... the city Gothembourg. It is five miles from the sea, and is connected with Stockholm by the Goeta Canal, which is a wonderful piece of engineering. Steamboats ply regularly between Gottenburg and the capital through this canal, the voyage occupying three ...
— Up The Baltic - Young America in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark • Oliver Optic
... made the women with their children go, The oars ply back again, and yet again; Whilst, inch by inch, the drowning ship sank low, Still, under ...
— Successful Recitations • Various
... she had said, grandly, that very morning, to Jack, looking around at the well-polished, old-fashioned furniture, and the still bright three-ply carpet, "that I should have my sitting-room down here, and my sleeping apartment up stairs, but so it is. The servants need watching more than the children, as you know, Mr. Jack, and I've had to have eyes to things ever since the D's first came. ...
— Donald and Dorothy • Mary Mapes Dodge
... those old days are flown, And now we ply our labours: We cook and scrub, We scour and rub, Regardless of our neighbours; The steps we bravely stone, Nor care a straw who passes The while we clean With shameless mien Quite ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 152, Feb. 7, 1917 • Various
... Mother—the bow is mine; and, save myself, No Greek hath right to give it, or refuse. None who in rock-bound Ithaca possess Dominion, none in the steed-pastured isles Of Elis, if I chose to make the bow His own for ever, should that choice controul. But thou into the house repairing, ply Spindle and loom, thy province, and enjoin Diligence to thy maidens; for the bow 420 Is man's concern alone, and shall be mine Especially, since I am master here. She heard astonish'd, and the prudent speech Reposing of her son deep in her heart, Withdrew; then ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer
... of arts Ply his plane and glass; Let the vapors rise, Let the liquor pass; Let the dusky slave Till the southern fields; Not the task of both Such a treasure yields; Honey, Pan ordained, Food for gods and men, Only in my way ...
— Gifts of Genius - A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors • Various
... clients), and aunt's walking-boots. One corner was Lucy's, which she occupied in conjunction with a little table, at which, from seven in the morning until bedtime, she worked with pen or needle (it was provoking she could not learn to ply both at one time), when she was not running about the house, or nursing a boarder's baby. On the rare evenings when her aunt could not find work of any description for her, Lucy was requested to take the Bible from the shelf, and read a chapter aloud. ...
— The Cockaynes in Paris - 'Gone abroad' • Blanchard Jerrold
... by the morning of the 25th, had increased to at least five leagues, the ice continuing to "pack" between us and the shore. The wind, however, now gradually drew round to the westward, giving us hopes of a change, and we continued to ply about the margin of the ice, in constant readiness for taking advantage of any opening that might occur. It favoured us so much by streaming off in the course of the day, that by seven P.M. we had nearly ...
— Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the • Sir William Edward Parry
... the murder, but she doubted his resolution: and she feared that the natural tenderness of his disposition (more humane than her own) would come between, and defeat the purpose. So with her own hands armed with a dagger, she approached the king's bed; having taken care to ply the grooms of his chamber so with wine, that they slept intoxicated, and careless of their charge. There lay Duncan, in a sound sleep after the fatigues of his journey, and as she viewed him earnestly, there was something in his face, as he ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb
... I met one of those Mexican adventurers who under one pretext or another manage to get into the Indian villages and cannot be routed out again. Certain of them ply some little trade, generally that of a blacksmith, others act as "secretaries," writing what few communications the Indians may have to send to the government authorities; some conduct a little barter trade, exchanging cheap cotton cloth, ...
— Unknown Mexico, Volume 1 (of 2) • Carl Lumholtz
... name from the wooden reel or spool on which thread is wound; "bottom" simply meaning the base or foundation of the reel. The names of his comrades have no specific connection with the trades they ply; but "Starveling" is appropriate by tradition for a tailor—it takes seven tailors to make ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick
... That fella mammy belonga 'nother fella altogether. You no savee, come close up—that fella ply way. You no savee, come close up, that fella ...
— Tropic Days • E. J. Banfield
... DUFFERS. Cheats who ply in different parts of the town, particularly about Water-lane, opposite St. Clement's church, in the Strand, and pretend to deal in smuggled goods, stopping all country people, or such as they think they can impose on; which they frequently do, by selling them Spital-fields ...
— 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue • Captain Grose et al.
... hundred feet long (and that is a dimension that looks almost immeasurable when dry on land), forty feet beam and twenty-five hundred tons burden. Another, of similar dimensions, is building beside her, and they are both intended for the Pacific Mail Company's line, and will ply between California and China. The various operations going on upon the ground—the laying of an iron keel three hundred feet long, the modeling into true and fine curves the enormous plates for a ship's side, the joining of these so neatly that the rivets are not visible, and the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - April, 1873, Vol. XI, No. 25. • Various
... I know who arch a dome, And tunnel a hill. They chisel in marble and fashion in chrome, And measure the sky. They find the good and destroy the ill, And they bend and ply The laws of nature out of a ...
— Toward the Gulf • Edgar Lee Masters
... boats ply between Bellport and the Great South Beach, whither the summer visitors are in the habit of repairing for the purpose of tumbling in the surf on the outside. In one of these, with a fair wind and a skipper acquainted with the numerous shoals, it is very pleasant to ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, November, 1878 - of Popular Literature and Science • Various
... up many representations of him both among the legions and in Rome itself. He organized a phalanx, sixteen thousand men, of Macedonians alone, named it "Alexander's phalanx," and equipped it with the arms which warriors had used in his day. These were: a helmet of raw oxhide, a three-ply linen breastplate, a bronze shield, long pike, short spear, high boots, sword. Not even this, however, satisfied him, but he called his hero "The Eastern Augustus." Once he wrote to the senate that Alexander had come on ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol VI. • Cassius Dio
... belongings, Gould and Fisk had added by way of pastime a splendid steamer to ply between Fall River and New York. Upon its trial voyage, Travers was the guest of its owners. The appointments of the vessel were gorgeous in the extreme, and in the large saloon were suspended life-size portraits of Gould and of Fisk. After a promenade of an hour ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson
... himself to the rapid current, which in that place runs like a mill stream, and soon swept him off from the neighborhood. It was not, however, until he had drifted a great distance that he ventured to ply his oars, when he made his skiff dart like an arrow through the strait of Hell Gate, never heeding the danger of Pot, Frying Pan, nor Hog's Back itself, nor did he feel himself thoroughly secure until safely nestled in bed in the cockloft of the ...
— Stories by Modern American Authors • Julian Hawthorne
... a considerable traffic. Bayonne furnishes carts, Biarritz carriages. Omnibuses ply to and fro; market-barrows are drawn frequently past; burden-bearers and peasants are met or overtaken trudging contentedly on. The latter cheat both the omnibus and themselves, for the fare is but a trifle, ...
— A Midsummer Drive Through The Pyrenees • Edwin Asa Dix
... whose only crime was that their bow-strings were wet, and butchering them where they stood. So awful and unexpected was this spectacle that for a little while the English archers, all except Grey Dick and a few others cast in the same iron mould, ceased to ply their bows ...
— Red Eve • H. Rider Haggard
... These norwesters give notice of their coming by a great sea that tumbles in on the shore for some time before they come, and by a black sky in the north-west. Upon these signs ships either get up their anchors, or slip their cables and put to sea, and ply off and on till the weather is over. Sometimes they are forced to do so 2 or 3 times before they can take in their lading; which it is hard to do here in the fairest weather: and for fresh water they send, as I have said, to Santa ...
— A Voyage to New Holland • William Dampier
... the wall at the back.] And from here you can see the remainder of the estate, to the edge of the kitchen-garden, where they ply at evening a serpent ...
— Chantecler - Play in Four Acts • Edmond Rostand
... be needed by the doctor; about five dozen should be prepared. The gauze is cut in eighteen-inch squares. Opposite edges are folded toward one another, about two inches being lapped each time; this finally yields a seven or eight-ply strip, which is wrapped into appropriate shape about two fingers. The ravelled ends are then tucked into the roll. It is most satisfactory to divide the sponges and sterilize ...
— The Prospective Mother - A Handbook for Women During Pregnancy • J. Morris Slemons
... handicraftsmen. Hath he a good house? He pledgeth that house until I bring it behind me. Therewith gain I much in goods and money, and thus do I pass my days." "I thought," rejoined the peasant, "that 'twere only the Jew who did usury, but I hear that ye also ply that trade." The burgher answers that interest is not usury, to which the peasant replies that interest (Guelt) is only a "subtle name." The burgher then quotes Scripture, as commanding men to help one another. The peasant readily answers that in doing this ...
— German Culture Past and Present • Ernest Belfort Bax
... Knoll had long had the repute of harbouring fairies; Sarah's experiences put the matter beyond all doubt. That worthy female continued to ply her vocation for many years after, with unvarying dexterity and signal success. She was certainly a more prosperous woman after ...
— Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland • Daniel Turner Holmes
... surface. Rubber marks can be removed by rubbing in a direction the reverse of the marks with a half-dry rubber and increased pressure. When the work has received a sufficient body, in finishing the drying of the last rubber, ply it briskly the way of the grain to produce a clean dry surface for ...
— French Polishing and Enamelling - A Practical Work of Instruction • Richard Bitmead
... interval of peace. Simon, meanwhile, told his part of the story to his compeers, and the fame of his annuity ran through street and alley, and spread through the whole tribe of Israel. The bounty acted directly as an encouragement to ply the profitable trade, and "Old clothes! Old clothes!" was heard again punctually under my window; and another and another Jew, each more hideous than the former, succeeded in the walk. Jews I should not call them; though such they ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. IX - [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond] • Maria Edgeworth
... I jumped up and said, 'I'll go and tell Lady Rotherwood.' I knew I must before I got into a fright, and Ivinghoe said I couldn't then, and he would speak to his mother and make it easy for me, and Ply says he really meant it; but I thought then that's the way the bad ones always get the others into concealments and lies. So I wouldn't listen a moment, and I ran down, with him after me, saying, 'Hear reason, Mysie.' And I ran full butt ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge
... launched with such indescribable suddenness that Doctor Joe and Jamie had scarcely time to drop from the komatik before it was begun. Andy had instinctively seized his whip and began to ply it with every opening that offered. The first stroke caught a big wolf across the eyes, and with howls of pain it immediately endeavoured to extricate itself from the fight. The lash ...
— Troop One of the Labrador • Dillon Wallace
... the inevitable result of continued muscular contraction. For example, let a lady ply the needle quickly for some hours, and the muscles of the back and right arm will become exhausted, which will be indicated by a sense of weariness in these parts. A change of employment and position ...
— A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) • Calvin Cutter
... Clyde. The first land engine made by Mr. Napier is still in use in Mr. Boak's spinning factory at Dundee. His first essay at marine engineering was a contract undertaken in 1823, to build the engines for the Leven, a small paddle-steamer that used to ply between Glasgow and Dumbarton. When the Leven had been "put on the shelf," after having served its day, the engines were taken from her and removed to the Vulcan Foundry in Washington Street, to which Mr. Napier subsequently removed, and where these interesting memorials of the early history ...
— Western Worthies - A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West - of Scotland Celebrities • J. Stephen Jeans
... kindly with the handle of his umbrella, "I know. Hence my application to your skill. That presumptuous idea revealed as in a lightning flash the abyss on the brink of which I stood. This demon of perverse pride must be laid; humbled for ever. So ply your brushes, and see you spare ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., February 7, 1891 • Various
... want work, you should buy a boat and ply your trade as a waterman," the sailor said, when the short voyage had come to an end, and Walter leaped ashore, impatient to conclude the mission with which he ...
— Neal, the Miller - A Son of Liberty • James Otis
... iron vessels continued to ply upon the Severn, more than twenty years elapsed before another shipbuilder ventured to follow his example. But in 1810, Onions and Son, of Brosely, built several iron vessels, also for use upon the Severn. ...
— Men of Invention and Industry • Samuel Smiles
... upon the ground abundantly as at the bottom of the sea—that market whence no goods return, and where there is no captain nor supercargo to render an account of sales. Here the clerks are diligent with their paper and pencils and sailors ply the block and tackle that hang over the hold, accompanying their toil with cries long-drawn and roughly melodious till the bales and puncheons ascend to upper air. At a little distance a group of gentlemen are assembled round ...
— Twice Told Tales • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... emaciated, and stark, He buoyed his boyish limbs, and strove to ply With the quick wave, and gain, ere it was dark, The beach which lay before him, high and dry: The greatest danger here was from a shark, That carried off his neighbour by the thigh; As for the other two, they could not swim, So nobody ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron
... down to the water just in time to see the boat turning a reach of the river. They hurried along the bank for some distance, shouting to those in her to stop—an order not very likely to be obeyed. So vigorously did Pearson ply the oars, that there seemed every probability of the boat escaping its pursuers. Still the latter continued to chase along ...
— John Deane of Nottingham - Historic Adventures by Land and Sea • W.H.G. Kingston
... Agrippina;—at present their chief is Nero, in name a man, in fact a woman, as is shown by his singing, his playing the cithara, his adorning himself:—but ruling as I do men of Britain that know not how to till the soil or ply a trade yet are thoroughly versed in the arts of war and hold all things common, even children and wives; wherefore the latter possess the same valor as the males: being therefore queen of such men and such women I supplicate and ...
— Dio's Rome, Volume V., Books 61-76 (A.D. 54-211) • Cassius Dio
... When the boatswain of a seventy-four pipes all hands to the main tack, and flourishes his rope's end over the shoulders of the poor fellows who are tugging at the ropes, do you perceive so dignified, so gratifying a picture, as Ulysses exhorting his dear friends, his ERIAERES 'ETAIROI, to ply their oars with energy? You will say, Ulysses was a fabulous character. But the economy of his vessel is drawn from nature. Every man on board has a character and a will of his own. He talks to them, argues with them, ...
— Headlong Hall • Thomas Love Peacock
... Apennine slope, with the chestnut the oak-trees immingle, Where, amid odorous copse bridle-paths wander and wind, Where, under mulberry-branches, the diligent rivulet sparkles, Or amid cotton and maize peasants their water-works ply, Where, over fig-tree and orange in tier upon tier still repeated, Garden on garden upreared, balconies step to the sky,— Ah, that I were far away from the crowd and the streets of the city, Under the vine-trellis laid, O ...
— Amours de Voyage • Arthur Hugh Clough
... the horror of the green-keepers, and rolled past the club-house to the aeroplane, where Rodier, having finished cleaning, was regaling himself with an excellent repast sent out to him by Mr. McMurtrie. Cheers for Lieutenant Smith arose; Rodier smiled and bowed, not ceasing to ply his knife and fork until a daring youth put his foot upon the aeroplane. Then Rodier dropped knife and fork, and rushed like a cat at the intruder. The Frenchiness of his language apprised the spectators that they were on the wrong ...
— Round the World in Seven Days • Herbert Strang
... Britain's hate? A wizard told him in these words our fate: "At length corruption, like a gen'ral flood (So long by watchful Ministers withstood), Shall deluge all; and av'rice, creeping on, Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun; Statesman and patriot ply alike the stocks, Peeress and butler share alike the box, And judges job, and bishops bite the town, And mighty dukes pack cards for half-a-crown. See Britain sunk in Lucre's sordid charms, And France revenged of Anne's and Edward's arms!" 'Twas no Court-badge, great Scriv'ner! fired ...
— Essay on Man - Moral Essays and Satires • Alexander Pope
... possible. In order to retard the completion of the first parallel, and the opening of the fire, it is necessary to try to discover the location of such parallel, as well as that of the artillery, and to ply them with projectiles. But, on their side, the besiegers will do all in their power to hide their works, and those that they are unable to begin behind natural coverts they will execute at night. It will ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885 • Various
... affects the commercial interests of Philadelphia, and gives a great advantage to New York. The tide reaches as high as the falls of Trenton, thirty-five miles above Philadelphia, and one hundred and fifty-five miles from the sea. Six or seven steam-boats, of large size, ply on the Delaware, and form a communication with New York, by Trenton and Bordentown; and with Baltimore, by Wilmington and Newcastle. These vessels are all fitted up in ...
— Travels in North America, From Modern Writers • William Bingley
... Gypsy name, brought with them from the country from which they originally came; it is compounded of two words, signifying, as has been already observed, horseshoe fellows, or people whose trade is to manufacture horseshoes, a trade which the Gypsies ply in various parts of the world, - for example, in Russia and Hungary, and more particularly about Granada in Spain, as will subsequently be shown. True it is, that at present there are none amongst the English Gypsies who manufacture horseshoes; all the men, however, are tinkers more or ...
— The Zincali - An Account of the Gypsies of Spain • George Borrow
... stages about for every possible place except Streatham. Greenwich, Deptford, Blackheath, Eltham, Bromley, Footscray, Beckenham, Lewisham—all places but the right. However, there were abundance of "go-carts," a species of vehicle that ply in the outskirts of the metropolis, and which, like the watering-place "fly," take their name from the contrary—in fact, a sort of lucus a non lucendo. They are carts on springs, drawn by one horse (with curtains to protect the company from the weather), the drivers of which, ...
— Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities • Robert Smith Surtees
... of prudence alone—if none more worthy—forbade an attempt to replenish his pocketbook by revisiting the little rez-de-chaussee in the rue Roget and realizing on its treasures, he had determined to have a taximeter fitted to his car and ply for hire until time or chance should settle the question ...
— The Lone Wolf - A Melodrama • Louis Joseph Vance
... boats which every year ply back and forth upon lake, river, and ocean, are constant reminders of his great work for ...
— Stories of Great Inventors - Fulton, Whitney, Morse, Cooper, Edison • Hattie E. Macomber
... the people. When it was proposed a year ago to place a steamer upon the line from Halifax to Boston, to carry freight and passengers, the idea was scouted as chimerical, and certain to fail. The Eastern State, a Philadelphia-built propeller of 330 tons, was purchased and commenced to ply fortnightly; she has accommodations for fifty passengers, and two hundred tons of freight. She has seldom had less than fifty passengers upon any trip, and upon the last one from Halifax there were one hundred and sixty-three. The fare from Boston to Halifax is $10, meals included. ...
— Acadia - or, A Month with the Blue Noses • Frederic S. Cozzens
... were to be seen black coats—even as on a hot summer's day flies revolve around a sugar loaf while the old housekeeper is cutting it into cubes before the open window, and the children of the house crowd around her to watch the movements of her rugged hands as those members ply the smoking pestle; and airy squadrons of flies, borne on the breeze, enter boldly, as though free of the house, and, taking advantage of the fact that the glare of the sunshine is troubling the old lady's sight, disperse themselves over broken and unbroken ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
... sat themselves down in one of the aquatic cabs which ply the water streets of the city in the sea. The gondolier stood to his oar and put his best foot foremost, and as the boat sped forward on its way along the capital S of the Grand Canal, Larry told the tale of the twin brothers and ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 3 • Various
... were harnessed four iron-gray horses that would have done honor to the Messageries-royales, was divided into three compartments, coupe, interieur, and rotonde, with an imperiale above. It resembled those diligences called "Gondoles," which now ply, in rivalry with the railroad, between Paris and Versailles. Both solid and light, well-painted and well-kept, lined with fine blue cloth, and furnished with blinds of a Moorish pattern and cushions of red morocco, the "Swallow of the Oise" could carry, comfortably, nineteen passengers. Pierrotin, ...
— A Start in Life • Honore de Balzac
... country for Santa Claus to ply his trade," said Molly to Philippe, who was showing her over the estate. "But what is this peaked thing with the ...
— Molly Brown's Orchard Home • Nell Speed
... one of our farther-off neighbors, who lived more than four miles away, came to visit us. Naturally the children flocked around him to hear his stories in broad Scotch and to ply him with questions. In his turn, he began to ask them questions. One of these was, "When do you expect ...
— Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail • Ezra Meeker
... I wondered at, and tells me that he is afeard that the Captain is killed by the watermen at Towre Stayres; so I presently went thither, and found that upon some rude pressing of the watermen to ply the Captain, he struck one of them with his cane, which they would not take, but struck him again, and then the German drew his sword and ran at one of them, but they were ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... to the side of the larger canoe. "The hatchets of the Pamunkeys were sharp. They fought like real men. This canoe could go no further. See, it is wet within—they had to ply the gourd very fast to keep afloat so far. One canoe would not hold them all, so they hid both here. They knew the palefaces would follow up the river, so they cared not to stay upon its banks; the Pamunkeys, too, are their enemies. They have gone through the forest towards ...
— Prisoners of Hope - A Tale of Colonial Virginia • Mary Johnston
... Californians as they compared it with the stately frigates and ships they had been accustomed to see, exclaimed, "How ugly!" Although it was not a beautiful vessel, its arrival was an event of great importance, for it was the first of a line of steamers which were under contract to ply monthly between San Francisco and Panama, and with its coming began such an immigration as the world has ...
— History of California • Helen Elliott Bandini
... considered ways and means, rejecting one after another. He vaguely laid plans to wait until the fellow went to his quarters for the night, and then break in and steal his clothes. A better plan suggested itself; to ply him with drink until unconscious and then drag him somewhere and strip him. This also did not seem practical. Then he thought of inducing him to gamble and winning all his possessions, but a remnant of sense deterred him. De Launay, though he gambled recklessly, never, by any chance, won. ...
— Louisiana Lou • William West Winter
... am glad to see that a compromise is effected, and the little man settles himself in the middle of a small carpet and locks his legs together so that his shins form an X and he sits on his feet. In this position he will ply his needle for the rest of the day at a rate inversely proportional to the distance of his mistress. When she retires for her afternoon siesta the needle will nap too. Then he will take out a little Vade ...
— Behind the Bungalow • EHA
... set foot on the opposite side than the magpies flew away, filling all the heavens with their chatter. The weeping wife and lover-husband stood for a long time wistfully gazing at each other from afar. Then they separated, the one to lead his ox, the other to ply her shuttle during the long hours of the day with diligent toil. Thus they filled the hours, and the sun-king again ...
— Japanese Fairy World - Stories from the Wonder-Lore of Japan • William Elliot Griffis
... used to that; I cannot stoop to try it— To take the spade in hand, and ply it. The narrow being suits ...
— Faust • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
... station Ernest left Moose with the waggon and mules, while he took passage for himself and Josh in one of the steam-boats which ply along the rolling waters of the Missouri to the large town on its banks above, that may now be called the capital ...
— Picked up at Sea - The Gold Miners of Minturne Creek • J.C. Hutcheson
... that of the navigator, Laperouse. The sturdy farmers of the fat and fertile plain which is the granary of France, who drive in to Albi on market days, the patient peasants of the fields, and the simple artisans who ply their primitive trades under the shadow of the dark-red walls of St. Cecile, know few details, perhaps, about the sailor who sank beneath the waters of the Pacific so many years ago. Yet very many of them have heard ...
— Laperouse • Ernest Scott
... our own products, the benefits of such exchange to apply only to goods carried under the flag of the parties to the contract; the removal on both sides from the vessels so privileged of all tonnage dues and national imposts, so that those vessels may ply unhindered between our ports and those of the other contracting parties, though without infringing on the reserved home coasting trade; the removal or reduction of burdens on the exported products of those countries coming within ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Chester A. Arthur • Chester A. Arthur
... number of small tugs moored alongside, and one or two bigger craft—fruit boats, I judged, which used to ply in the Aegean. They looked pretty well moth-eaten from disuse. We stopped at one of them and watched a fellow in a blue nightcap splicing ropes. He raised his eyes once and looked at us, and then kept on with ...
— Greenmantle • John Buchan
... Romance!" the Skipper said; "He vanished with the coal we burn; Our dial marks full steam ahead, Our speed is timed to half a turn. Sure as the tidal trains we ply 'Twixt port and port. ...
— The Seven Seas • Rudyard Kipling
... Square, at night, without his being accosted by one of these girls, who, instead of asking him to purchase flowers, would invariably remark, "Give me a penny, mister?" by which term, afterwards, all these girls of loose character were known to ply their trade. Many of these girls were so exceedingly handsome as to be taken by gentlemen of means and well cared for, and one instance is known where a flower girl married a very wealthy man of ...
— Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations • William Howe
... to her, for she would not hurry on to that last crime before Meg was there to take care of him. Then she saw herself stealing along the streets, down to an old pier she knew of, where boats had ceased to ply, and where no policeman would be near to hinder her, or any one about to rescue her; and then she would fling herself, worthless and wretched as she was, into the rapid river, which had borne so many worthless wretches like her upon its strong current into the land of darkness and death, ...
— Little Meg's Children • Hesba Stretton
... to my great honor—but let no god be told!— He brought me to my altar a lambkin from the fold. So though, my lads, a Scare-Crow and no true god I be, My master and his vineyard are very dear to me. Keep off your filching hands, lads, and elsewhere ply your theft: ...
— Vergil - A Biography • Tenney Frank
... has fits of some sort, and has just arrived from Switzerland, straight from the station, dressed like a German and without a farthing in his pocket. I gave him twenty-five roubles to go on with, and am going to find him some easy place in one of the government offices. I should like you to ply him well with the victuals, my dears, for I should think ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky
... thou yet to learn that perfidy is not a trait of any class? This gowned traitor hath a key to all the gates. Hear him—I will ply the superstition of the Greeks, and draw them from the walls ...
— The Prince of India - Or - Why Constantinople Fell - Volume 2 • Lew. Wallace
... spoke a gust of icy air caught the cart and tilted it, and the lightning needles began to ply more dreadfully than ever. The tempest was ...
— Jess • H. Rider Haggard
... biters ply the lip, A mile ahead the muse shall skip: The poet's purpose she best may serve Inside the den—if she have the nerve. Behold! laid out in dark recess, A ghastly goat in stark undress, Pallid and still on her ...
— Cobwebs From an Empty Skull • Ambrose Bierce (AKA: Dod Grile)
... gullet; press your left shoulder forward so as to bring your chest to the horse's near side, for, if the horse falls, you will fall clear; the moment he is descending, press him forward, take up the rein, which, being knotted, is short to your hands, and ply the spurs. But a horse, after being laid down and made walk, tied up like the zebra a few times, will seldom persist, because the moment he attempts to rise you pull his off hind leg under ...
— A New Illustrated Edition of J. S. Rarey's Art of Taming Horses • J. S. Rarey
... seasons behave; and as a bathing station it has no rival. The Lido is not beautiful; but Venice seen from it is beautiful, and it has trees and picnic grounds, and its usefulness is not to be exaggerated. The steamers, which ply continually in summer and very often in winter, take only a quarter of an hour to make ...
— A Wanderer in Venice • E.V. Lucas
... no tidings of mankind? Such heaven a throne of glittering ice would be. That changeless bliss to others thou may'st give. Happiest am I th' unhappy to upraise. Oh for a thousand hands[3] the task to ply! To succour and relieve be mine," she said, "Bought though it be by share of suffering. Turn then the wheel,[4] and back to ...
— The Awakening of China • W.A.P. Martin
... feet in length, which ran at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, and Fulton soon afterwards introduced steamers on the Hudson. In the year 1812 the Comet was launched by Henry Bell, a ship carpenter of Helensburgh, and began to ply on the Clyde, being the first British steamer that ran regularly with passengers. The Comet was of 40 feet keel, 25 tons burthen, and 3 horse-power. The second steamer launched on the Clyde was ...
— How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves - Updated to 1900 • W.H.G. Kingston
... the group. "He's been in water up to his neck. Had it not been for him we should have had to lie out all night; he sees in the dark like an owl. We've had a hard tramp." He stood steaming before the fire as he spoke—drenched to the skin, the others crowding round him, too happy for the moment to ply him with questions. He himself was quivering with an inward joy. Alice's kisses were ...
— The Lady of Big Shanty • Frank Berkeley Smith
... The idlers began to ply the occupants of the cab with a hundred questions which must be answered in some shape unless suspicion was to be aroused—and suspicion, under such circumstances, would mean the holding back of the train, and the failure ...
— Chasing an Iron Horse - Or, A Boy's Adventures in the Civil War • Edward Robins
... quit their mooring. And all hands must ply the oar; Baggage from the quay is lowering, We're impatient—push from shore. 'Have a care! that case holds liquor— Stop the boat—I'm sick—oh Lord!' 'Sick, ma'am, damme, you'll be sicker Ere you've been an hour on board.' Thus are screaming ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I. (of VI.) - With his Letters and Journals. • Thomas Moore
... the flower-embroider'd vale We ply our faery feet in gamesome prank; Or pay our wonted court Circling the Spirits of the Western Gale, Where tir'd with ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me,—"Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be ...
— Life and Literature - Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, - and classified in alphabetical order • J. Purver Richardson
... conscious of an absurd feeling of disappointment. He could not understand why he felt any anxiety to see Mrs. Errington refuse a beggar alms. Yet he would gladly have followed, like a spy, to behold a commonplace and dingy event. Despite the apparent reluctance of the beggar to ply his trade, Hindford felt convinced that presently the man would approach Mrs. Errington and be promptly sent about his business. Her negative would, no doubt, be eager enough even upon this exquisite and charitable morning. Wishing devoutly that, being a gentleman, he had not to conform to ...
— Tongues of Conscience • Robert Smythe Hichens
... Cupid! wanton Cupid! 'Twas ever thus your way: When maids would bid you ply your wings, You find ...
— The Bed-Book of Happiness • Harold Begbie
... words my Masters: this is Court-infection, And none but Cowards ply them: tell me, Decius, Without more circumstance, who ...
— The Laws of Candy - Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (3 of 10) • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
... saliva, and does not think with the late Dr. Samuel Parr, that a spitting-box is a necessary article of household furniture. The free-born citizen of the States laughs at the aristocratic restrictions imposed on smoking in England, where, on board of the numerous steamboats that ply on the Thames, conveying the pride of the city to Gravesend and Margate, no smoking is allowed abaft the funnel, and where, in public-houses ashore, no gentleman is permitted to smoke in the parlor before two o'clock in the afternoon. A pipe of tobacco, or a cigar, ...
— Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings
... Canal: "'Kublai caused a water communication to be made in the shape of a wide and deep channel dug between stream and stream, between lake and lake, forming as it were a great river on which large vessels can ply.' Kublai was the first sovereign of one of ...
— Four Young Explorers - Sight-Seeing in the Tropics • Oliver Optic
... Tancred and Godfrey, "On to the breach, ye soldiers of the cross, Scale the red wall and swim the choking foss. Ye dauntless archers, twang your cross-bows well; On, bill and battle-axe and mangonel! Ply battering-ram and hurtling catapult, Jerusalem is ours—id Deus vult." After which comes a mellifluous description of the gardens of Sharon and the maids of Salem, and a prophecy that roses shall deck the entire ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray
... because they were fatigued, and harassed by those who commanded them. Other contrary winds assailed them, which further impeded the voyage. In order to double certain promontories of the land, it was necessary to ply the oars, and to urge on the rowers with the severity and punishment generally used in galleys. They thought that harsh, and contrary to the governor's assurance, when he promised them that they would ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVI, 1609 • H.E. Blair
... new turn to the conversation; for the boys, receiving a sly wink from the wary old Jew, began to ply her with liquor: of which, however, she took very sparingly; while Fagin, assuming an unusual flow of spirits, gradually brought Mr. Sikes into a better temper, by affecting to regard his threats as a little pleasant banter; ...
— Oliver Twist • Charles Dickens
... and even the unfailing beggar by the portal of St. Mark's. In his "Miracle of the True Cross," he introduces gondoliers, taking care to bring out all the beauty of their lithe, comely figures as they stand to ply the oar, and does not reject even such an episode as a serving-maid standing in a doorway watching a negro who is about to plunge into the canal. He treats this bit of the picture with all the charm and much of that delicate feeling for simple ...
— The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance - Third Edition • Bernhard Berenson
... is well spoken of by the tuna fishermen as being for its size even stronger than the tuna. It is fished for with a lighter rod and 12-ply line. I shall give a description of tuna tackle later; the tackle used for yellow-tail resembles it in general character, but is much lighter. The fish is a handsome mackerel of a dull silvery colour, tinged with yellow, which becomes ...
— Fishing in British Columbia - With a Chapter on Tuna Fishing at Santa Catalina • Thomas Wilson Lambert
... far, and to how little purpose I am gone on this Topic: The Ply is long since taken, and our raw Sallet deckt in its best Trim, is never like to invite Men who once have tasted Flesh to quit and abdicate a Custom which has now so long obtain'd. Nor truly do I think Conscience at all concern'd in the Matter, upon any Account of Distinction ...
— Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets • John Evelyn
... a broken beetle— Sprawls without grace, Her face gray as asphalt, Her jaws sagging as on loosened hinges... Shadows ply about her mouth— Nimble shadows out of the jigging tree, That dances above her its dance of ...
— The Ghetto and Other Poems • Lola Ridge
... the intensity of her nature. But Billy also knew that many a girl with such a love in her heart for one man had married another. Rita, he feared, could not stand against the domineering will of her mother; and, should Williams ply his suit, Billy felt sure he would have a stubborn, potent ally in the hard Chief Justice. There was, of course, an "if," but it might easily be turned into a terrible "is"—terrible for Billy, Dic, and Rita. ...
— A Forest Hearth: A Romance of Indiana in the Thirties • Charles Major
... soon as it was passed, the whispering seethed over like a boiling pot. The knots were sundered; and gradually, one following another, the whole mob began to form into a procession and escort the curtained litter. Soon spokesmen, a little bolder than their mates, began to ply the Chancellor with questions. Never had he more need of that great art of falsehood, by whose exercise he had so richly lived. And yet now he stumbled, the master passion, fear, betraying him. He was pressed; he became incoherent; and then from the jolting litter came a groan. In the ...
— Prince Otto • Robert Louis Stevenson
... councillor to Francis I. of France, who repaired this castle in 1528. Abroken staircase leads up to the top. "No warrior's tread is echoed by their halls, no warder's challenge on the silence falls. Around, the thrifty peasants ply their toil, and pluck in orange groves the scented spoil from trees that have for purple mountains made a vestment bright, of green and gold inlaid." —Guido and Lita, by ...
— The South of France—East Half • Charles Bertram Black
... real confusion and riot, or it may only seem so to those not used to the sea. Often what is a hopelessly tangled mass of sails, ropes, spars and gears to the landsman, is as clear to a sailor as a skein of yarn is to an experienced knitter, who can ply her ...
— The Moving Picture Girls at Sea - or, A Pictured Shipwreck That Became Real • Laura Lee Hope
... East River, and ten in the North River. The boats are large side-wheel vessels, capable of carrying pedestrians, horses and vehicles. The fare to the Jersey shore is three cents, to Brooklyn two, and to Harlem and Staten Island ten cents. On some of the lines the boats ply every five minutes; on others the intervals are longer. The Staten Island and Harlem boats start ...
— Lights and Shadows of New York Life - or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City • James D. McCabe
... liar! Why, how old you've grown! Is this Hilarion? Why, you've changed too— You were a singularly handsome child! (To Florian) Are you a courtier? Come, then ply your trade, Tell me some lies. How do you like your King? Vile rumour says he's all but ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
... in a low tone, "you wanted to kill him, did you? Don't you know that to shut him up here and ply him with brandy is as much murder as though you stood with ...
— A Millionaire of Yesterday • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... heard and less, the faint remonstrance falls; Tir'd with contempt, she quits the slipp'ry reign, And Pride and Prudence take her seat in vain. In crowd at once, where none the pass defend, The harmless freedom, and the private friend. The guardians yield, by force superior ply'd, To Int'rest, Prudence; and to Flatt'ry, Pride. Here Beauty falls betray'd, despis'd, distress'd, And hissing Infamy proclaims the rest. Where then shall Hope and Fear their objects find? Must dull suspense corrupt the stagnant ...
— English Satires • Various
... use these poles at home, they might drive them in as piles along their water-front, and have a twenty-five thousand-acre dock; or if their city were a hundred square miles in extent, they might set up a seven-ply wall ...
— The History of the Telephone • Herbert N. Casson
... urge the policy of authorizing the establishment of a line of steamships regularly to ply between this country and foreign ports and upon our own waters for the transportation of the mail. The example of the British Government is well worthy of imitation in this respect. The belief is strongly entertained ...
— State of the Union Addresses of John Tyler • John Tyler
... much else in our modern life, it has lost whatever picturesqueness it might once have claimed. For a true canal population, bright and happy, living the same life from father to son and generation to generation, we must go to Holland. There these inland navigators ply their vocation with only one ambition, and that to become the owner of a tjalk, and to rear thereon a family of towers. It is said that the life is one that requires the consumption of unlimited quantitics of 'schnapps,' ...
— Dutch Life in Town and Country • P. M. Hough
... leaving the meadows and the marsh land, and recks not of herdsmen or herd, but presses on, now without cheek, now standing still, and raising his broad neck he bellows loudly, stung by the maddening fly; so he in his frenzy now would ply his swift knees unresting, now again would cease from toil and shout ...
— The Argonautica • Apollonius Rhodius
... luscious plenty gay, Round his chamber dance and play; Or from wine, as courage springs, O'er his face extend my wings; And when feast and frolic tire, Drop asleep upon his lyre. This is all, be quick and go, More than all thou canst not know; Let me now my pinions ply, I ...
— Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. - during the last twenty years of his life • Hester Lynch Piozzi
... leather casque that guards the Fireman's brow, A bolder, sterner glance shines out than plumy crest can show; And oft shall ply the Fireman's axe, though rude and rough it be, Where sabre, lance, and bayonet, right soon would ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV. • Various
... keep him from coming to Jesus Christ. And is not this a needy time; doth not such an one want abundance of grace? is it not of absolute necessity that thou, if thou art the man thus beset, shouldst ply it at the throne of grace, for mercy and grace to help thee in such a time of need as this? To want a spirit of prayer now, is as much as thy life is worth. O, therefore, you that know what I say, you that are broke loose from hell, that are fled for refuge to lay hold on ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... said a master-musician and his friend, a philosopher from Nantes, who came to St. Saviour's in the summer just before the marriage, and lodged with Jean Jacques. Jean Jacques, having spent a year at Laval University at Quebec, had almost a gift of thought, or thinking; and he never ceased to ply the visiting philosopher and musician with questions which he proceeded to answer himself before they could do so; his quaint, sentimental, meretricious observations on life saddening while they amused his guests. They saddened the musician more than the other because ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... did not he? (he answered). Bless me! Go back to him again, then, and ply him with questions; if he really has the science, and is not lost to all sense of shame, he will blush to have taken your money and then to have sent you ...
— The Memorabilia - Recollections of Socrates • Xenophon
... axe, fling by the spade: Leave in its track the toiling plough; The rifle and the bayonet-blade For arms like yours were fitter now; And let the hands that ply the pen Quit the light task, and learn to wield The horseman's crooked brand, and rein The ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick
... ply their trade simply from poverty and want, being ashamed of it but profiting by it to maintain their family. But poverty acts chiefly in ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel
... Harbor.—The roof had a pitch of about 3 in 20 and was covered with an earth fill. The concrete was troweled to a fairly smooth surface, was mopped with a heavy coat of roofing asphaltum, or mastic, then covered with the heaviest grade roofing felt laid 3 ply, starting at the coping of the parade wall and made 4 ply in the gutter. On this assumed watertight surface 3-in. book tile was laid with joints normal to the gutter and cemented. The purpose of the tile was to afford a free ...
— Concrete Construction - Methods and Costs • Halbert P. Gillette
... which vice's moody mists most blind, Blind Fortune, blindly, most their friend doth prove; And they who thee, poor idle Virtue! love, Ply like a feather toss'd ...
— The Golden Treasury - Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language • Various
... father said, that to a distant town He must repair, to ply the artist's trade. What tears of bitter grief till then unknown! What tender vows our last sad kiss delayed! To him we turned:—we had no other aid. Like one revived, upon his neck I wept, And her whom he had loved in joy, he said He well could love in grief: his faith he kept; ...
— Lyrical Ballads 1798 • Wordsworth and Coleridge
... five hundred Spaniards could be very bountifully supplied here, and even more. They are in an excellent position for trade, for they are at a very few days' journey from all the islands of Maluco, Xlatheo [Matheo?], Borney, and Xaba, and they lie on the route of the galleons which ply between Yndia, Malaca, and Maluco, and which anchor at La Canela. The only thing to be feared is that the men from these galleons will enter the island, doing damage, and making a bad name for us. ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume X, 1597-1599 • E. H. Blair
... hand, and assisting Ellen into the canoe, waved an adieu, and turning hastily round, with long hasty strides hurried back towards his abode. The Indians stood up and saluted him with signs of respect, and then, at the command of Domingos, began to ply their paddles, and we once more recommenced our voyage. Arthur watched the recluse till ...
— On the Banks of the Amazon • W.H.G. Kingston
... Thames near by, teeming with ships from the uttermost corners of the earth, and we think of commerce. We use the word glibly, but no mind is able to comprehend its full import. We know that these ships ply the seas, bearing food and clothing to the peoples who live far away, but when we attempt to estimate the magnitude of commerce, the mind confesses to itself that the problem is too great. We may multiply the number of ships by their tonnage, ...
— The Vitalized School • Francis B. Pearson |
