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Sever   /sˈɛvər/   Listen
Sever

verb
(past & past part. severed; pres. part. severing)
1.
Set or keep apart.  Synonym: break up.
2.
Cut off from a whole.  Synonyms: discerp, lop.  "The soul discerped from the body"



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"Sever" Quotes from Famous Books



... to solve the problem in a way that seemed to her very simple. Her mind had never yet bowed to any obligation apart from personal love and reverence; she had no keen sense of any other human relations, and all she had to obey now was the instinct to sever herself from the man ...
— Romola • George Eliot

... lay in the early sun, Stretched in the grass, I thought upon My true love, my dear love, Who has my heart for ever, Who is my happiness when we meet, My sorrow when we sever. She is all fire when I do burn, Gentle when I moody turn, Brave when I am sad and heavy And all laughter when I am merry. And so I lay and dreamed and dreamed, And so the day wheeled on, While all the birds with thoughts like mine Were singing to ...
— Georgian Poetry 1918-19 • Various

... once contemplate continuing his arrangements as if nothing had happened would not be true. All he had to do was to go. The thing was dishonest, clearly enough, but it was not his action. His original report would always be proof of his own integrity, and on his return he could sever his connection with the firm on some other pretext. On the other hand, to break his connection with Honaton & Benson, to force the suppression of the report unless given in full, to give up his trip, to ...
— The Happiest Time of Their Lives • Alice Duer Miller

... outer parts—weakens the force of the interruption, and transforms the cadence into a lighter, more transient, point of repose, for which the term semicadence (or half-stop) is used. The semicadence indicates plainly enough the end of its phrase, but does not completely sever it ...
— Lessons in Music Form - A Manual of Analysis of All the Structural Factors and - Designs Employed in Musical Composition • Percy Goetschius

... stands, and from which belated travellers stray into it, shows beyond mistake that you can't shut out the world; that you are in it, to be of it; that you get into a false position the moment you try to sever yourself from it; and that you must mingle with it, and make the best of it, and make the best of yourself ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 2 (of 3), 1857-1870 • Charles Dickens

... or more properly Serbians, Serbs, has been adopted as a general appellation by the best authorities. See below in sec. 1, on the Literature of the Servians of the Greek Church. The word Srb, Serb, Sorab, has been alternately derived from Srp, scythe; from Siberi, Sever, north; from Sarmat; from Serbulja, a kind of shoe or sock; from servus, servant, etc. The true derivation has not yet been settled. See Dobrovsky's History of the Bohemian Language, 1818; and also his ...
— Historical View of the Languages and Literature of the Slavic - Nations • Therese Albertine Louise von Jacob Robinson

... they shall much more increase, For then thy soul, thy true and loving friend, By death shall find a wished release From all that caused sin, In which it lived in; For then it doth begin Those blessed joys to win, for ever, for ever, For there is nothing can them sever. ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick

... unexpected," she said. "We'd been married seventeen years. I sever dreamed that Charlie was the sort of man to get infatuated with anyone. We always got on very well together. Of course, I had a great many interests that he ...
— The Moon and Sixpence • W. Somerset Maugham

... suffering from a complication of diseases, with which the medical skill of that day was unable to cope, and these accumulating, in March, 1671, ended her days. The "Stuart Papers" furnish an interesting account of her death. Seeing the hour was at hand which would sever her from all earthly ties, she besought her husband not to leave her whilst life remained. She likewise requested that in case Dr. Blandford or any other of the bishops should come to visit her, he would tell them she had become a member of the Catholic Church; but if they insisted on seeing ...
— Royalty Restored - or, London under Charles II. • J. Fitzgerald Molloy

... he should organize the military strength of the Northwest, first, to hold Missouri to the Union, and, second, by a carefully prepared military expedition open the Mississippi River. By so doing, he would sever the Confederate States, reclaim or conquer the region lying west of the great stream, and thus reduce by more than one half the territorial area of the insurrection. Though he had been an army lieutenant, he had no experience in active war; yet the talent and energy he had displayed in Western ...
— A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln - Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History • John G. Nicolay

... relations with that woman, and while I myself often spoke of it to others as a simple flirtation, and averted a scandal for your sake, and when the climax was reached, and she herself gave you an opportunity to sever your relations, and nobody need have been wiser—and she'd have had all the blame—and it's only what she's accustomed to—you—you! you, James North!—you must nonsensically go, and, by this extravagant piece of idiocy and sentimental tomfoolery, let everybody see ...
— Drift from Two Shores • Bret Harte

... death our bodies sever, Thou shalt find me there above; Where I shall be learning ever, To be worthy of ...
— Fringilla: Some Tales In Verse • Richard Doddridge Blackmore

... died out when the late Julia Smith became the Captain's widow with two sons. Old reminiscences remain very firm with old people,—and Lord Scroope was still much afraid of the fast, loud beauty. His principles told him that he should not sever the mother from the son, and that as it suited him to take the son for his own purposes, he should also, to some extent, accept the mother also. But he dreaded the affair. He dreaded Mrs. Neville; and he dreaded Jack, who had been so named after his gallant grandfather, Colonel Smith. When Mrs. ...
— An Eye for an Eye • Anthony Trollope

... a knife or a pair of scissors, and refuse to accept anything in return, was said to cut or sever ...
— Folk Lore - Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century • James Napier

... conspiring, as if some dread fate were awaiting this intruding stranger; at times he fancied he could hear low-murmuring voices, the first mutterings of distant thunder. What if some red bolt of lightning were suddenly to sever this blackness in twain and reveal its hidden and awful secrets? But no; there was no such friendly or avenging glare; the brooding skies lay over the sombre valleys, and the gloomy phantasmagoria slowly changed and changed in that unearthly ...
— Prince Fortunatus • William Black

... blest for ever, Are they, whom true affection binds, In whom no doubts nor janglings sever The union of their constant minds; But life in blended current flows, Serene and sunny ...
— Horace • William Tuckwell

... I fondly hop'd to clasp A friend, whom death alone could sever; Till envy, with malignant grasp, [i] Detach'd thee from ...
— Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 • Byron

... by separating the brass ring from the iron at three or four points of the circumference. This should be done with a cold chisel, very slightly, and so as not to interfere with the loading. It is only necessary to sever the contact of ...
— Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. - 1866. Fourth edition. • Bureau of Ordnance, USN

... unburden myself on a certain subject, the nature of which he did not at the time know. I immediately decided that it would be best to "take the bull by the horns," submit my plans, and, if necessary, sever my connection with the firm, should its members force me to choose (as I put it) between themselves and Humanity. I then proceeded to unfold my scheme; and, though I may have exhibited a decided intensity ...
— A Mind That Found Itself - An Autobiography • Clifford Whittingham Beers

... brought, Chamberlain handed it over to Shaidad Khan and his sect for safety, to be returned when the Mutiny was over. The tears rose to the Native officer's eyes, he touched Chamberlain's knees, and swore that death alone would sever the bond of fidelity of which the sword was the token. He took his leave, ...
— Forty-one years in India - From Subaltern To Commander-In-Chief • Frederick Sleigh Roberts

... unemployed: "Give us labour or we die!" (The problem of the unemployed male is, of course, not nearly so modern as that of the unemployed female. It may be said in England to have taken its rise in almost its present form as early as the fifteenth century, when economic changes began to sever the agricultural labourer from the land, and rob him of his ancient forms of social toil. Still, in its most acute form, it may be called ...
— Woman and Labour • Olive Schreiner

... of such tactics. Crouching back, he eyed his adversary in silence, with eyes whose hatred seemed to excoriate. But whenever the running noose at the end of the cord came coiling swiftly at his head, with one lightning snap of his long teeth he would sever it as with a knife. By the time Kane had grown tired of this diversion the cord was so full of knots that no noose would any ...
— Kings in Exile • Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts

... any change keeps everything waiting for another thing to move. What is the use of light and shadow, the fuss of the morning, and struggle for the sun? Fair darkness has filled all the gaps between them, and why should they be sever'd into single life again? For the gladness of daybreak is not come yet, nor the pleasure of seeing the way again, the lifting of the darkness leaves heaviness beneath it, and if a rashly early bird flops down upon the grass, ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore

... brighter days, Perhaps she brings; Deeper and holier songs, Perchance she sings; But thou and I, fair time, We too must sever— Oh dream ...
— Legends and Lyrics: First Series • Adelaide Anne Procter

... the last he had ever contemplated. Sometimes, in moments of doubt or despondency, he had thought it possible that poverty, the advice of friends, caprice or inconstancy on the part of Charlotte herself, should sever them. But among the possible enemies to his happiness he had never counted Death. What had Death to do with so fair and happy a creature as Charlotte Halliday? she who, until some two months before this time, might have ...
— Charlotte's Inheritance • M. E. Braddon

... oh, would the soul might ever Achieve its immortality in youth, When nothing yet hath damped its high endeavor After the starry energy of truth! Here let us pause, and for a moment sever This gleam of sunshine from the sad unruth That sometime comes to all, for it is good To lengthen to the ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... looked back and who told us what he saw. His circumstances were very different from those of the other. He was a prisoner. In a little while the sword of the executioner would sever the frail bond of life. He knew the time was near, and these are his words; "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." His words are a shout of triumph; ...
— Heart Talks • Charles Wesley Naylor

... darling I must sever: Stream, oh tears, stream forth amain! In the breeze the rushes quiver And the ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various

... am not so easily got rid of. I am not going, but some one is coming, coming, I feel it, close to you, yet not one to sever us. There are some natures that bind others closer, as some substances unite by the ...
— Dawn • Mrs. Harriet A. Adams

... ver' painful to say. Alas, Senor Gendarme, I mus' have my property.... If she refuse, then I mus' sever one of her pretty fingers.... An' if she still refuse—I sever her pretty fingers, one by ...
— The Flaming Jewel • Robert W. Chambers

... no, she was the very image of health. No man, said you, father? Then it is a woman. Ah! my Lady Countess is it, bent on making her match her own way? Sir, you are too good and upright to let a tyrannous dame like that sever between us, though she be near of kin to us. My mother might scruple to cross her, but you have ...
— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge

... be puzzled to understand how this cutlassing is done. It is no easy feat to sever with one blow a liana thick as a man's arm; the trained cutlasser does it without apparent difficulty: moreover, he cuts horizontally, so as to prevent the severed top presenting a sharp angle and proving afterwards dangerous. He never appears to strike hard,— only ...
— Two Years in the French West Indies • Lafcadio Hearn

... acquaint him with the result of certain steps she had taken. Father Lorenza, the confessor of both the Boccanera ladies, was to be present at the interview, for the idea of the divorce was in reality his own. He had urged the two women to it in his eagerness to sever the bond which the patriotic priest Pisoni had tied full of such fine illusions. Benedetta became quite animated as she explained the reasons of her hopefulness. "Monsignor Nani can do everything," she said, ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola

... man on earth; and my heart was full of the most absurd vanity at the thought that she was mine, this beautiful woman, whose purity was high above all calumny. I had tied around my neck one of those fatal ropes which death alone can sever, and, fool that I ...
— Within an Inch of His Life • Emile Gaboriau

... oath will bide, E'en though his life be lost in the endeavour, To leave no way, nor art, nor wile untried, Until he pluck the fruit he sighs for ever: And, though he still would spare thy honest pride, The knot that binds him he must loose or sever; Thou too, O lady, shouldst make sharp thy knife, If thou art fain to ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... baby. Do you think that when she talked religion with her husband she ever thought that it would cause him to leave her and go away for ever? If she had thought that, she would never have done as she did. A woman would never help anything to sever her husband from her, not even religion. And when after ten years a baby had come to her! Surely she was very much to be pitied.' This woman made me understand that the highest religion of a woman is the true love of her husband, of her children; ...
— The Soul of a People • H. Fielding

... served. Kano whispered his discovery to the nurse, and when she wondered, explained to her with shivering earnestness that it was undoubtedly the boy's intention to break it against the iron bedstead the first moment he was left alone, and with a shard sever one of his veins. Tatsu grinned like a trapped badger when it was wrested from him, and said that he would find a way in spite of them all. After this not even a medicine bottle was left in the room, and the watch ...
— The Dragon Painter • Mary McNeil Fenollosa

... on her for a moment with passionate, despairing love, and as he gazed, his spirit faltered, and he doubted. The evil genius whispered to his soul, that truth must alienate her love, must sever her from him for ever. There was a sharp and bitter struggle in his heart for that moment—but it passed; and the better spirit was again strong and clear ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 1 of 2) • Henry William Herbert

... spite of the pain that she often experiences. Perhaps the first pains we experience are when we are in contemplation of God and are caught by God into High Contemplation. He will at times expose the soul to so much of the Divine Power that she cannot sever herself from the too great fulness of Union with God, though the body is crying to her to do it and the sufferings of the body are all felt by the soul, which is pulled two ways: all this is very painful ...
— The Prodigal Returns • Lilian Staveley

... might fairly claim that as his food, etc., enabled the workman to obtain his wages or revenue, they belonged to revenue capital. On the other hand, regarding it as essential to distinct terminology to sever entirely consumptive goods from productive goods, I should insist that the "production capital" of the community was synonymous with its "revenue capital," and that although the individual view of capital is not always coincident with the community's ...
— The Evolution of Modern Capitalism - A Study of Machine Production • John Atkinson Hobson

... order three or four of the men to shoot with blunted arrows at Wulf, whom he taught to catch them on his shield or to sever the shafts with a blow of his sword, while Osgod standing by helped to cover him when two or three arrows flew at him together. This was a daily exercise, and even after the month's regular work was over some of the men came up every day to shoot, until Wulf had attained such coolness and skill ...
— Wulf the Saxon - A Story of the Norman Conquest • G. A. Henty

... endeavor Shall nerve me while we sever: I will not fret my hero's heart With piteous sobs and tears. I send thee forth, my dearest, My truest and my rarest, And yield thee to the keep of Him Who ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - April, 1873, Vol. XI, No. 25. • Various

... won't eat unless I do. But, whatever I may do, you will be deceived by it no more than I shall be deceiving myself. We are united, you and I, to two kinds of very detestable people [Mary means Miss Huntly, Bothwell's wife, whom he repudiated, at the king's death, to marry the queen.]: that hell may sever these knots then, and that heaven may form better ones, that nothing can break, that it may make of us the most tender and faithful couple that ever was; there is the profession of faith in which ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... the power of which we speak. By thought, man can either raise himself up and connect himself with the "Power House" of the Universe, or cut himself off entirely from the Divine Inflow. His thought is his greatest weapon, because, by it he can either draw on the Infinite or sever himself (in consciousness, but not in reality) ...
— Within You is the Power • Henry Thomas Hamblin

... with Mr. Hilton Cubitt he was able to give me two other short sentences and one message, which appeared—since there was no flag—to be a single word. Here are the symbols. Now, in the single word I have already got the two E's coming second and fourth in a word of five letters. It might be 'sever,' or 'lever,' or 'never.' There can be no question that the latter as a reply to an appeal is far the most probable, and the circumstances pointed to its being a reply written by the lady. Accepting it as correct, we are now able to say that the ...
— The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Magazine Edition • Arthur Conan Doyle

... in the note sent to Germany in which Germany was notified: "Unless the Imperial Government should now immediately declare and effect abandonment of this present method of submarine warfare against passenger and freight carrying vessels, the Government of the United States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations ...
— My Four Years in Germany • James W. Gerard

... purchased either at my establishment, or at my counters, Soho Bazaar. The calyx and seed cup are covered with prickles: to form these, roll some shreds or strips of light green wax between the marbles moderately warm; sever them into small pieces; hold the thickest end to a lighted candle, and apply each quickly ...
— The Royal Guide to Wax Flower Modelling • Emma Peachey

... knowing the dread uncertainty of the case, this noble man revealed in his offer his true magnanimity. I remained with her two months, when home demands became imperative, and I longingly left one who, through nine years of close and dear relationship had become a life link hard to sever. ...
— The World As I Have Found It - Sequel to Incidents in the Life of a Blind Girl • Mary L. Day Arms

... German states. He kept Holland respectful, and the Emperor measured. It cannot be denied that he made a grand figure in Europe and in Asia, or that France would have infinitely profited by close union with him. He did not like the Emperor; he wished to sever us from England, and it was England which rendered us deaf to his invitations, unbecomingly so, though they lasted after his departure. Often I vainly pressed the Regent upon this subject, and gave him reasons of which he felt ...
— The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete • Duc de Saint-Simon

... principle, I have inquired into the causes which may induce any of the states to separate from the others. The Union may, however, perish in two different ways: one of the confederate states may choose to retire from the compact, and so forcibly sever the federal tie; and it is to this supposition that most of the remarks which I have made apply: or the authority of the federal government may be progressively intrenched on by the simultaneous tendency of the united republics to resume ...
— American Institutions and Their Influence • Alexis de Tocqueville et al

... profits had not been fairly apportioned, and he was accordingly hostile. To Orion he wrote that, had Bliss lived, he would have remained with the company and made it reimburse him for his losses, but that as matters stood he would sever the long connection. It seemed a pity, later, that he did this, but the break was bound to come. Clemens was not a business man, and Bliss was not a philanthropist. He was, in fact, a shrewd, capable publisher, who made as good a contract as he could; yet he was square ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... world for my sweet bride, Yea, though the thunder-god defied. Be glad and brave, my lily, never Shah mortal dare our lives to sever." ...
— Fridthjof's Saga • Esaias Tegner

... anything else. It seems to me that these conditions invite the artist to the study and the appreciation of the common, and to the portrayal in every art of those finer and higher aspects which unite rather than sever humanity, if he would thrive in our new order of things. The talent that is robust enough to front the every-day world and catch the charm of its work-worn, care-worn, brave, kindly face, need not fear the encounter, though it seems terrible to the sort nurtured in the superstition ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... and sweet this life of ours, Soon its cord must sever! Death comes quick, nor brooks delay, Ruthless, he tears us away, No man ...
— Greifenstein • F. Marion Crawford

... butifull open and extensive bottom in which there is an old Village, one also on the Stard. Side a little above both of which are abandened by all their inhabitents except Two Small dogs nearly Starved, and an unreasonable portion of flees- The Hills and mountains are covered with Sever kinds of Pine-Arber Vitea or white Cedar, red Loril, alder and Several Species of under groth, the bottoms have common rushes, nettles, & grass the Slashey parts have Bull rushes & flags- Some willow on the waters edge, passed an Island 3 miles ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... business.— To be quite alone imports me.— Wherefore first by killing you I'll be free to kill another [He draws his sword, but merely cuts the air. Draw, then, draw your sword or not, Thus the needful path I shorten To two acts of vengeance. Heavens! I but strike the air, cut nothing, Sever nothing else. Quick! Paul, Stop him as he stalks off yonder, ...
— The Purgatory of St. Patrick • Pedro Calderon de la Barca

... chantants!" Boulanger challenged him for this, and the duel took place with swords. Floquet was slightly wounded, but the general's foot slipped, and he received his adversary's sword-point in his throat. It was almost a miracle that it did not sever the jugular vein. For some time "Le brav' General's" life was despaired of; but when he was pronounced out of danger, Paris amused itself with the thought that the most prominent soldier in the French army had nearly met his death at the hands ...
— France in the Nineteenth Century • Elizabeth Latimer

... my family I declare to you herewith that I give you over to the well-deserved contempt of your fellowmen. A man who can hesitate to restore the honour of a loving and yielding girl is not worthy of an alliance with our family. Hence we now sever any further ...
— The Indian Lily and Other Stories • Hermann Sudermann

... undue moisture would then cause a shedding of the bolls, and the first frost of autumn would stop the further fruiting. The plants, furthermore, were liable to many diseases and insect ravages. In infancy cut-worms might sever the stalks at the base, and lice might sap the vitality; in the full flush of blooming luxuriance, wilt and rust, the latter particularly on older lands, might blight the leaves, or caterpillars in huge armies reduce them to skeletons and blast the prospect; ...
— American Negro Slavery - A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime • Ulrich Bonnell Phillips

... my king! I cannot part Without thy blessing, or in anger from thee. Banish us not! the sacred right of guests Still let us claim: so not eternally Shall we be sever'd. Honour'd and belov'd As mine own father was, art thou by me: And this impression in my soul remains. Should e'en the meanest peasant of thy land Bring to my ear the tones I heard from thee Or should I on the humblest see thy garb, I will with joy receive him as a god, ...
— Iphigenia in Tauris • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

... England and the reckless iconoclasm of Paris struck the imagination of the French settlers, and the Assembly of Hayti forthwith drew up a declaration, setting forth the illegality of the French decrees, the miseries resulting from them, and the resolve of the colonists to sever a connection absolutely fatal to their welfare. Citing the example of the United States fifteen years before, and recounting the misdeeds of the mother country, they proclaimed to the world the justice ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... philanthropy and Christian charity. And what we must remember is that our philanthropy needs our theology to sustain it. They only will continue Christ's work for man who cherish Christ's thoughts about man. Sever philanthropy from the great Christian ideas which have created and sustained it, and it will very speedily come to an end of its resources. All experience shows that philanthropy cut off from Christ has not capital enough on which to ...
— The Teaching of Jesus • George Jackson

... Shrubs and low flowering things were waving all the way down the sides of the abyss, as if nature had done her best to fill up the ugly wound. Many feet below them, on a projecting rock, waved one little white blossom, so fragile it seemed as if each swaying motion in the breeze must sever it from ...
— Mercy Philbrick's Choice • Helen Hunt Jackson

... answered best to the close desire of his soul; and he quotes it oftenest in his sermons. Then, to study the Holy Writings, scan the least syllables of them, since all truth lies there—well, a whole life is not too much for such labour as that! And to do it, one should sever all ties with the world, take ...
— Saint Augustin • Louis Bertrand

... he suddenly with a kind of fury, "I suppose that a sister who loves her brother, pities and does not insult him; that the Marquis de Roselle knows better what can make him happy than the Countess of St. Sever; and that he is free, independent, able to dispose of himself, in spite of all opposition." With these words he turned to leave the room brusquely. I run to him, I stop him, he resists. "My brother!" "I have no sister." He makes a movement to free ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury

... contentious, always complaining, and always indebted. They were likely to be Baptists or Methodists, by persuasion, and Democrats in politics. As small farmers their lot was a hard one. They needed only the incentive of cheap lands in the West to sever the slender ties which bound them to the stony hillsides of New England. Yet the older towns of New England also complained of the Western fever which was carrying off the available labor supply. ...
— Union and Democracy • Allen Johnson

... memory never roam To ties that, grown with years, ye idly sever, To the old haunts that ye have left forever—Your early homes? Your ancient creed, once faith's sustaining lever, The loved who erst ...
— The Communistic Societies of the United States • Charles Nordhoff

... storm. The Baaran leaf the more fair it looks, the more infectious it is, and in the sweetest words is oft hid the most treachery. Therefore, my sons, choose a friend as the Hyperborei do the metals, sever them from the ore with fire, and let them not bide the stamp before they be current: so try and then trust, let time be touchstone of friendship, and then friends faithful lay them up for jewels. Be valiant, my sons, for cowardice is the enemy to honor; but not too rash, for that is an extreme. Fortitude ...
— Rosalynde - or, Euphues' Golden Legacy • Thomas Lodge

... profusion of massive gold jewellery. The Yakutes are expert goldsmiths, but chiefly excel in the manufacture of arms, especially a kind of yataghan, or huge dagger, which is stuck into the waistband. Yakute steel is much more flexible than Russian, although I have seen a knife made out of the former sever a copper coin as neatly as ...
— From Paris to New York by Land • Harry de Windt

... his beauty and vigour, is seen A perishing glory, the beam of a day, A flower that will fade with the evening away: The breath of the Lord o'er its verdure shall pass; The freshness shall wither and fade like the grass; The flower from its stem the rude whirlwind may sever, But the word of our God is ...
— Enthusiasm and Other Poems • Susanna Moodie

... when they had reached the garden, "this, after all, is only a false alarm, or even if it be not, we know that the government could by no means afford to abandon the established church in Ireland, because that would be, in other words, to reject the aid of, and sever themselves from all connection with, the whole Protestant party; and you, as a man of sense, Purcel, need not be told that it is only by the existence of a Protestant party in this country that they are enabled to hold it in ...
— The Tithe-Proctor - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton

... the whiles this verse Shall live, and surely it shall live for ever: For ever it shall live, and shall rehearse 255 His worthie praise, and vertues dying never, Though death his soule doo from his bodie sever: And thou thy selfe herein shalt also live; Such grace the heavens doo to my ...
— The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 • Edmund Spenser

... thou glean, what strenuous gleaners may, In the throng'd fields where winning comes by strife; And though the just sun gild, as mortals pray, Some reaches of thy storm-vext stream of life; Though that blank sunshine blind thee; though the cloud That sever'd the world's march and thine, be gone; Though ease dulls grace, and Wisdom be too proud To halve a lodging that was all ...
— Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold • Matthew Arnold

... has commanded; prayer from a chaste frame, from a harmless soul, from a holy spirit.... So, let hoofs dig into us, thus stretched forward to God, let crosses suspend us, let fires embrace us, let swords sever our necks from the body, let beasts rush upon us,—the very frame of mind of a praying Christian is prepared for every torment. This do, ye good presidents; tear ye away the soul that is praying for ...
— Primitive Christian Worship • James Endell Tyler

... this Committee with a view to give evidence on the subject. This Dr. Ryerson did at length, (as did also these gentlemen). Dr. Ryerson traced the history of the Methodist body in Canada, and showed that, three years before this time, the Canada Conference had taken steps to sever its connection with the American General Conference, and had done so ...
— The Story of My Life - Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada • Egerton Ryerson

... the course of human events it becomes necessary for one man to sever those friendly bands which have connected him with another, and to assume a station apart, a decent respect for the opinions of the latter usually make it necessary to declare the cause of that separation. It is not so in this case. You know ...
— Mr. Hawkins' Humorous Adventures • Edgar Franklin

... the Christian home is eminently infant baptism. Take this away, and you sever the strongest cord that binds church and home. As the Jew was commanded to circumcise his child, and thus bring it into proper relations to the theocratical covenant, so the Christian has a similar command from Christ to bring his children, through the holy sacrament of baptism, to Him. It is not ...
— The Christian Home • Samuel Philips

... Give it to me, my beloved; give us both this life of solitude and divine peace. Speak one word—say that you are ready to fly with me—I will arrange everything for our escape; will guide us both to liberty, to happiness. Speak this one word, and I will sever every tie that binds me to the world; my future and my life will belong to you alone. We will strip off all the luxury that surrounds us as the glittering snake-skin with which we have concealed our real natures, and escape ...
— A Conspiracy of the Carbonari • Louise Muhlbach

... his wrist—to his teeth, and bit down savagely. If he could sever an artery.... Pain shot through him, and he stared down at ...
— Pursuit • Lester del Rey

... your mistaken notions of life, death, and futurity, the result might be more overpowering than either you or I can imagine! I have told you what I can do,— your incredulity does not alter the fact of my capacity. I can sever you,—that is, your Soul, which you cannot define, but which nevertheless exists,—from your body, like a moth from its chrysalis; but I dare not even picture to myself what scorching flame the moth might not heedlessly ...
— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli

... darling, both now and forever, My heart feels the thralldom of love's mystic spell, 'Tis fettered with shackles which nothing can sever, To the heart which responds to its ...
— Mountain idylls, and Other Poems • Alfred Castner King

... with little trouble, and was borne at full speed to the pile. The second stump gave him more difficulty, and before it would yield he had to sever two or three of its ...
— The Man From Glengarry - A Tale Of The Ottawa • Ralph Connor

... have I to answer now: My deity, O Queen, art thou. But 'tis no marvel, dame, to find Such lack of sense in womankind. Throughout this world, O Maithil dame, Weak women's hearts are still the same. Inconstant, urged by envious spite, They sever friends and hate the right. I cannot brook, Videhan Queen, Thy words intolerably keen. Mine ears thy fierce reproaches pain As boiling water seethes the brain. And now to bear me witness all The dwellers in the wood I call, That, when ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI

... as to disable him, and then cut his throat. The ox seemed fond of being rubbed and petted, so after a little time a firm hold on the tail was secured, and the big knife vigorously applied, but it was so very dull that he could not sever the tough old tendons. After sawing with the dull knife and being literally dragged for some distance, he became so much exhausted that he was obliged to relinquish his hold and see the excited ...
— Death Valley in '49 • William Lewis Manly

... world will be whole, and refuses to be disparted, we seek to act partially, to sunder, to appropriate; for example,—to gratify the senses, we sever the pleasure of the senses from the needs of the character. The ingenuity of man has always been dedicated to the solution of one problem,—how to detach the sensual sweet, the sensual strong, the ...
— Essays • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... distributed by missionary workers have exerted their influence, yet many whose minds were impressed have been prevented from fully comprehending the truth or from yielding obedience. Now the rays of light penetrate everywhere, the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them. Family connections, church relations, are powerless to stay them now. Truth is more precious than all besides. Notwithstanding the agencies combined against the truth, a large number take their ...
— The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan • Ellen G. White

... "You've got," says she, "a luscious prey; But soon its weight will make you rue, Unless I show you what to do." The captor promising a share, She bids her from the upper air To dash the shell against a rock, Which would be sever'd by the shock. The Eagle follows her behest, Then feasts on turtle with his guest. Thus she, whom Nature made so strong, And safe against external wrong, No match for force, and its allies, To cruel death ...
— The Fables of Phdrus - Literally translated into English prose with notes • Phaedrus

... 'To sever, sir,' returned Sir Joseph, with great asperity, 'the cord of existence—my affairs would be found, I hope, ...
— The Chimes • Charles Dickens

... our love all died out? Have its altars grown cold? Has the curse come at last which the fathers foretold? Then Nature must teach us the strength of the chain That her petulant children would sever in vain. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 43, May, 1861 • Various

... his teeth. "And woe unto you too, race of vipers, bladders of wind! As the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so your root will be rottenness and your seed go up as dust. Fear will engulf you like a torrent. The high peaks will be broken, the mountains will sever, and night be upon all. The valleys and hills will be strewn with your corpses, the rocks will run with your blood, the plain will drink it, and the vultures feast on your flesh. Woe unto you all, I say, that call ...
— Mary Magdalen • Edgar Saltus

... compose. What had Death in store to awe Those eyes, that huge sea-beasts unmelting saw, Saw the swelling of the surge, And high Ceraunian cliffs, the seaman's scourge? Heaven's high providence in vain Has sever'd countries with the estranging main, If our vessels ne'ertheless With reckless plunge that sacred bar transgress. Daring all, their goal to win, Men tread forbidden ground, and rush on sin: Daring all, Prometheus play'd ...
— Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace • Horace

... words quoted with approval by Hooker (Eccl. Pol. vi. 4-15), "not to strike them with the mortal wound of excommunication, but to stay them rather from running desperately headlong into their own harm, and not to sever from Holy Communion any but such as are either found culpable by their own confession, or have been convicted in some public Court." The mode of the Curate's action was intended by the rubric to be admonition previous and private. The first paragraph ...
— Ritual Conformity - Interpretations of the Rubrics of the Prayer-Book • Unknown

... deep impression, the indelible picture in the memory, of Italy itself; the positive, unallegorical, essentially secular mode of thought; the unascetic, aesthetic, eminently human mode of feeling; the artistic desire of clear and harmonious form; the innumerable tendencies and habits which sever the Elizabethans so completely from the Middle Ages, and bring them so near at once to ourselves and to the ancients, making them at once antique and modern, in opposition to mediaeval; these essential characters and the vast bulk of ...
— Euphorion - Being Studies of the Antique and the Mediaeval in the - Renaissance - Vol. I • Vernon Lee

... He bowed to Hilda, but his duty in attending to the steering of the ship prevented his speaking. As she looked at him, she felt that he was the last link which yet united her with the past, and she almost dreaded the moment that he would have to leave the ship. "Yet, after all, from what do I sever myself?" she thought. "From associations only. Begone all such recollections. Let me enjoy the delightful present, and the no less happy future ...
— Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships - A Story of the Last Naval War • W.H.G. Kingston

... I must not exaggerate. The Mole's straps were for you the little cords with which you are so familiar in turfy soil. You broke them, as well as the hammock of the previous experiment, just as you sever with the blades of your shears any natural thread stretching across your catacombs. It is an indispensable trick of your trade. If you had had to learn it by experience, to think it out before practising it, your race would have disappeared, killed by the hesitations of its apprenticeship, for ...
— The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles • Jean Henri Fabre

... Copernicus could not sever himself from this obnoxious tradition.[5] It is true that neither the Pythagorean nor the Egypto-Tychonic system required epicycles for explaining retrograde motion, as the Ptolemaic theory did. Furthermore, either system could use the excentric of Hipparchus to explain the irregular motion known ...
— History of Astronomy • George Forbes

... Captain accepted all my geography leading from Kaze to the Nile, and wrote it down in his book—contracting only my distances, which he said he thought were exaggerated, and of course taking care to sever my lake from the Nile by his Mountains of ...
— What Led To The Discovery of the Source Of The Nile • John Hanning Speke

... abused.... He will never consent that this Union shall be dissolved so that he will be compelled to obtain a passport and get it vised to enter a foreign land to visit the graves of his ancestors. You cannot sever this Union unless you cut the heart strings that bind father to son, daughter to mother, and brother to sister, in all our new States and territories." And the heart of the speaker went out to his kindred and his boys, who were almost within hearing ...
— Stephen A. Douglas - A Study in American Politics • Allen Johnson

... tempts fortune's wave, And seeking wealth, secures a grave. The last, grasps yet the brittle thread: Though friends are gone and joy is dead— Still dares the dark and fretful tide, And clutches at its power and pride— Till suddenly the waters sever, And like the ...
— Poems • Sam G. Goodrich

... house, or to the disquieted Winterborne waiting in the lane below, Dr. Jones went home and wrote to Mr. Melbury at the London address he had obtained from his wife. The gist of his communication was that Mrs. Fitzpiers should be assured as soon as possible that steps were being taken to sever the bond which was becoming a torture to her; that she would soon be free, and was even then virtually so. "If you can say it AT ONCE it may be the means of averting much harm," he said. "Write to ...
— The Woodlanders • Thomas Hardy

... tyrant's crew— And we bent and bore, when he came once more, though suffering had pierced him through: And now he is laid beyond our aid, because to Ireland true— A martyred man—the tyrant's ban, the pious patriot slew. "And shall we bear and bend for ever, And shall no time our bondage sever And shall we kneel, but battle never, "For our own soil? "And shall our tyrants safely reign On thrones built up of slaves and slain, And nought to us and ours remain "But chains and toil? "No! round this grave our oath we plight, To watch, and labour, and unite, Till banded ...
— Thomas Davis, Selections from his Prose and Poetry • Thomas Davis

... two hearts in one breast lie And yet not lodge together? Oh, love! where is thy sympathy If thus our breasts you sever?" ...
— April's Lady - A Novel • Margaret Wolfe Hungerford

... earth was still—but knew not why; The world was listening, unawares. How calm a moment may precede One that shall thrill the world for ever! To that still moment none would heed, Man's doom was linked no more to sever— In the solemn ...
— Graded Poetry: Seventh Year - Edited by Katherine D. Blake and Georgia Alexander • Various

... bitterness in the dismay with which he contemplated his present forlorn and impecunious state. It was inevitable that he should sever himself from the sources of his income when they were found to be impure. Much more inevitable than that he should have cut off that untainted supply which six months ago would have flowed to him through Maddox. Common ...
— The Divine Fire • May Sinclair

... not be so. I hoped that my darling might be penniless rather than the heir to wealth, which, in all likelihood, would create an obstacle strong enough to sever us eternally. I longed to question her about her family, but could not as yet trust myself to broach the subject. And while I doubted and hesitated, honest blustering uncle Joe burst into the room, and aunt Dorothy ...
— Birds of Prey • M. E. Braddon

... not have it. I'd trample on the coronet. Gingerbread! I'd trample it in the mud, if it were to sever me from Winifred.' ...
— Aylwin • Theodore Watts-Dunton

... great events of my life," he said, "came together. I was engaged to be married to the Duchess of Lenchester at the same time that I found myself forced to sever my connexion with the Liberal party. You know, of course, that the Duchess has always been a great figure in politics. She has ambitions, and her political creed is almost a part of the religion of her ...
— A Lost Leader • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... hand in hand, as they stood when the clarions sounded the charge at Towton! and that link what swords forged on a mortal's anvil can rend or sever?" ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... write and break every engagement which he had made, and to sever his connection with Society at one stroke. But the next day his brother came again, with compromises and new protestations. There was no use going to the other extreme: he, Oliver, would have it out with the Wallings, and they might all go on their ...
— The Metropolis • Upton Sinclair

... of life, for ever, By those dread Powers that weave the woof,— Whose art the singer's spell can sever? Whose breast has mail to music proof? Lo, to the Bard, a wand of wonder The Herald[8] of the Gods has given: He sinks the soul the death-realm under, Or lifts it breathless up to heaven— Half sport, half earnest, rocking its devotion Upon the ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXVIII. February, 1843. Vol. LIII. • Various

... when clover-swathes lay round him, Or his feet the furrow press'd, He could mourn the sever'd daisy, Or the mouse's ruin'd nest; Woven of gloom and glory, visions Haunting throng'd his twilight hour; Birds enthrall'd him with sweet music, Tempests with their tones of power; Eagle-wing'd his mounting spirit Custom's rusty fetters spurn'd; Tasso-like, for Jean he melted Wallace-like, for ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 347, September, 1844 • Various

... cries for mercy blending; Where the slave with bosom swelling, Which despair has made its dwelling, And the scalding tear-drops falling— Sight to human hearts appalling— Strives, but strives in vain to sever Fetters that must bind him ever; Earth, oh, earth! with each possession Sold to tyrants and oppression, ...
— Canadian Wild Flowers • Helen M. Johnson

... Concomitant Variations. If the causes which act upon the state of any society produced effects differing from one another in kind; if wealth depended on one cause, peace on another, a third made people virtuous, a fourth intelligent; we might, though unable to sever the causes from one another, refer to each of them that property of the effect which waxed as it waxed, and which waned as it waned. But every attribute of the social body is influenced by innumerable causes; and such is the mutual action of the ...
— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill

... rest, urged the Government to resume its ancient privilege, and send a representative. But two powerful parties, united in nothing else, agreed in demanding absolute neutrality. The democracy wished that no impediment should be put in the way of an enterprise which promised to sever the connection of the State with the Church. M. Ollivier set forth this opinion in July 1868, in a speech which was to serve him in his candidature for office; and in the autumn of 1869 it was certain that he would soon be in power. The ministers could not insist on being admitted to the Council, ...
— The History of Freedom • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... to carry their flag farthest into that thorny jungle of flashing scimitars, and the huge arm of King Richard the Lion-hearted hewed a red road for them all which none could equal; for was he not the strongest man in the two entire armies—this King who could sever an iron bar with a swordstroke? But ever as he plunged with fresh zeal and ringing warcry into the heart of the fray, he became aware of a knight and his squire that as surely as his shadow, kept but a pace behind him; and the blows that were struck in that fight under the burning sun and with ...
— The Iron Star - And what It saw on Its Journey through the Ages • John Preston True

... This is true of the family of Albinus, whose bodies were thrown into the Rhone; those of Niger, according to Lampridius, were sent into exile, but afterwards put to death. Among the partisans of Albinus who were put to death were many women of rank, multae foeminae illustres. Lamprid. in Sever.—M.] ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon

... cannot see these questions in the light in which their own churches present them; and rather than go to God's altars with even an implied falsehood upon their consciences, or embrace the alternative of remaining outside of Christ's fold, they will sever life-long ties, entwined with some of their dearest and tenderest recollections, and go alone with their conscience and their God to altars where no such tests are imposed. And in these new associations they bear themselves with all ...
— Amusement: A Force in Christian Training • Rev. Marvin R. Vincent.

... stretched by the action of the blade, and the latter would soon get loose. If the sharp edge only came against the twine, while the blade was being worked backwards and forwards, it would instantly sever it, and then the blade would pull out, perhaps drop down among the boxes, and so get lost. Such an accident would be fatal to my prospects; and, if possible, I must ...
— The Boy Tar • Mayne Reid

... a passion that is rather quickened than destroyed by seclusion, and the old inhabitant of the prairies did not view these precautionary and mysterious movements, without experiencing some of its impulses. He approached the tent, and was about to sever two of its folds, with the very obvious intention of examining, more closely, into the nature of its contents, when the man who had once already placed his life in jeopardy, seized him by the arm, and with a rude exercise of ...
— The Prairie • J. Fenimore Cooper

... was out of his own hands; he had been a fool, and must pay the price. The cords about his wrists chafed and hurt with each movement. The metal wash-stand gave him an inspiration; its upper strip was thin, and somewhat jagged along the edge; possibly it might be utilized to sever the strands. It was better to try the experiment than remain thus helplessly bound. With hands free he could ...
— The Case and The Girl • Randall Parrish

... the sword! and sever Our strong and mighty tie! We part, and part forever, To conquer or to die! In sorrow, not in anger, I speak the word, "We part!" For I leave thee to thy death-bed, And I ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various

... a new moral geography began, and massacre in Asia was comparatively venial as compared with massacre in Europe. But now the Allies have said that there must be no more massacres in Asia, nor any possibility of them. To secure this, it will be necessary to sever from Turkey the lands where the alien peoples dwell, and form autonymous provinces under the protectorate of one or other of the allied nations. In most cases we shall find that there is a protecting Power more or less clearly indicated, ...
— Crescent and Iron Cross • E. F. Benson

... shears mak's me strong." Then Sally would gently snip the ends of the curling fringe all around, while Abe, by way of encouraging her, would put in, "We mun shun th' appearance of evil, thaa knows; cut a bit more, lass;" and then she would very reluctantly sever another lock or two, until he could be persuaded ...
— Little Abe - Or, The Bishop of Berry Brow • F. Jewell

... stream; when, forsooth, enraged he gives vent to his wrath against men, who by violence decree perverse judgments in the assembly, and drive out justice, not regarding the vengeance of the gods; and all their rivers are flooded as they flow, and the torrents sever asunder many mountains, and flowing headlong into the dark sea, roar mightily, and the husbandry-works[525] of men are diminished; so loudly moaned the Trojan mares running along. But Patroclus, when he had cut off the first phalanxes, drove them ...
— The Iliad of Homer (1873) • Homer

... German Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present method of warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels this government can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the government of the ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... rend the tie; The fealty that holds the captive will In potent thrall, if sever'd soon, Poor human faith a-blight and chill must die. O birdlings, blossoms, leaflets, flow'rs, Give forth chaste spirits to enchant the air; Let silver'd mem'ries glad the lonely hours, And crown ...
— Idle Hour Stories • Eugenia Dunlap Potts

... would mean the expulsion of all the young men in the High School. To that form of sentence I do not lean. A light form of punishment would be to prohibit absolutely the final baseball game of the school season. A sever form would be to withhold the diplomas of the young men of the graduating senior class. I think it likely that both forms of punishment will be administered, but I shall not announce my decision to-day. It will come later. The young men are ...
— The High School Pitcher - Dick & Co. on the Gridley Diamond • H. Irving Hancock



Words linked to "Sever" :   part, divide, separate, disunite, cut



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