"Unco" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... second in command, and laying the cloth with his own venerable hands, "d'ye think I've lived in this hottle in blinded eegnorance of hoo young married couples pass the time when they're left to themselves? Twa knocks at the door—and an unco trouble in opening it, after that—is joost the least ye can do for them! Whar' do ye think, noo, I'll set the places for you ...
— Man and Wife • Wilkie Collins
... night was rent by the sudden glare of a search-light from Bulwaan, and soon came the scream of shells hurtling over the town. It was the Boer paean of victory, and it sent the people hurrying to their underground refuges, to which the unco' guid had given the name of "funk-holes," but did no damage. Its purport was half-divined by the defenders. The news was still said to be good, but there were head-shakings, and even the stoutest optimism found itself unequal to the strain when it was announced that rations were to be cut down. ...
— Four Months Besieged - The Story of Ladysmith • H. H. S. Pearse
... hadna been out an hour, when ane o' my brothers-in-law called, and I thought he looked unco dowie. So I began to tell him about the excellent bargain that Walter had made, and what I had done. But the man started frae his seat as if he were crazed, and, without asking me ony questions, he only cried—'Gracious! Diana! hae ye been sic an idiot?' ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume VI • Various
... about three years in the farm, and our youngest lassie was about nine years auld. It was the summer time, and she had been paidling in the burn, and sooming feathers and bits o' sticks; I was looking after something that had gaen wrang about the threshin' machine, when I heard an unco noise get up, and bairns screamin'. I looked out, and I saw them runnin' and shoutin'—'Miss Jeannie! Miss Jeannie!' I rushed out to the barnyard. 'What is't, bairns?' cried I. 'Miss Jeannie! Miss Jeannie!' said they, pointing to the burn. I flew as fast as my feet could ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, XXII • various
... unco kippage,' said Mrs. Flockhart to Evan as he descended; 'I wish he may be weel,—the very veins on his brent brow are swelled like whipcord; ...
— Waverley, Or 'Tis Sixty Years Hence, Complete • Sir Walter Scott
... subjoined the old shepherd (for such he was), shaking his head, "he'll be unco busy amang ...
— The Black Dwarf • Sir Walter Scott
... comments grouped together under a title in which irony lurks. Take the volume called Charity, for example. Both the title of the book and the subject-matter of several of the sketches may be regarded as a challenge to the unco' guid (if there are any left) and to respectability (from which even the humblest are no longer safe). On the other hand, his title may be the merest lucky-bag accident. It seems likely enough, however, that in choosing it the author had in ...
— Old and New Masters • Robert Lynd
... you in their order the names on all the shop-signs; the fact was alleged as an illustration of his great powers of observation. Dickens was a great observer, but he would assuredly have been a still greater observer had he been a little less pre-occupied with trivial and unco-ordinated details. Good observation consists not in multiplicity of detail, but in co-ordination of detail according to a true perspective of relative importance, so that a finally just general impression may be reached in the shortest possible time. The skilled observer is he who does not have to ...
— The Author's Craft • Arnold Bennett
... cadence, stole a glance At Malcolm's soften'd face—a bird-soft touch Let flutter on the rugged silver snarls Of his thick locks, and laid her tender lips A second on the iron of his hand. "And did you ever meet," he sudden ask'd, Of Alfred, sitting pallid in the shade, "Out by yon unco place, a lad,—a lad "Nam'd Maxwell Gordon; tall, and straight, and strong; "About my size, I take it, when a lad?" And Katie at the sound of Max's name, First spoken for such space by Malcolm's lips, Trembl'd and ...
— Old Spookses' Pass • Isabella Valancy Crawford
... Shy, deny thy kindred, the unco guid. Shy, supping with the godless, he sneaks the cup. A sire in Ultonian Antrim bade it him. Visits him here on quarter days. Mr Magee, sir, there's a gentleman to see you. Me? Says he's your father, sir. Give me my Wordsworth. Enter ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... lad with constant slighting pride, Hatred for love is unco sair to bide: But ye'll repent ye, if his love grow cauld;— What like's a dorty[9] maiden when she's auld? Like dawted wean[10] that tarrows at its meat,[11] That for some feckless[12] whim will orp[13] and greet: The lave laugh at it till the dinner's past, And syne the ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan
... common civility; who never brought anything out of it except his brogue and his blunders. Surely my affection is equally ridiculous with the Scotchman's, who refused to be cured of the itch because it made him unco' thoughtful of his ...
— Oliver Goldsmith • Washington Irving
... horse," said he to Chieftain, and there was a kind of joyous lilt in his voice. "Draw away your pair, Hamish, and this lan' horse o' mine. We'll miss our dinner maybe, but I've an unco hankering ...
— The McBrides - A Romance of Arran • John Sillars
... inquire. "What is the state of the odds as long as we think we're happy?" and who would indulge in balls and theatres, and in every other form of amusement, while such pursuits afforded them, or seemed, to afford them, any pleasure. To the first section, i.e., the "unco guid," DRURIOLANUS has nothing to offer, not even a course of sermons by popular preachers; but to the two others he has much to say. For these, last Saturday, he commenced the first of his series of ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100. February 21, 1891 • Various
... help you, my child. I 'm not one of the "unco guid," but I believe most fully in the all-prevailing love of the great God and His Son, our blessed Saviour. Now kiss me, and go to your lessons ...
— Hollyhock - A Spirit of Mischief • L. T. Meade
... he. "Lights in a house is a thing I dinnae agree with. I'm unco feared of fires. Good-night to ye, Davie, my man." And before I had time to add a further protest, he pulled the door to, and I heard him lock me in ...
— Kidnapped • Robert Louis Stevenson
... build the fence higher and stop up the holes. Otherwise the jail was in good condition. Its inmates were few; in fact, it was rather apt to be empty: its occupants were usually prisoners for debt, or for some trifling breach of the peace, committed under the influence of the liquor that makes one "unco happy." Whether or not the people of the region have a high moral standard, crime is almost unknown; the jail itself is an evidence of primeval simplicity. The great incident in the old jailer's life had been the rescue of a well-known citizen who was confined on a charge of misuse of public ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... unco queer mishaps, Wi' nervish wind and clean collapse, An' naethin' does her guid but draps- ...
— The Auld Doctor and other Poems and Songs in Scots • David Rorie
... "You are in an unco' hurry," she replied, getting nettled, as she filled a glass. "It doesna' do to be so snottery ...
— The Underworld - The Story of Robert Sinclair, Miner • James C. Welsh
... aye," rejoined the man; "but I'm no sure he'll be our Member next time. The Voluntaries yonder, ye see," jerking his head, as he spoke, in the direction of the United Secession chapel of the place, "are awfu' strong and unco radical; and the Free Kirk folk will soon be as bad as them. But I belong to the Establishment; and I side wi' Dundas." The aristocracy of Scotland committed, I am afraid, a sad blunder when they attempted strengthening ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller
... tale.—Ae market night Tam had got planted unco right Fast by an ingle bleezing finely Wi reaming swats that drank divinely; And at his elbow Souter Johnny, His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony; Tam lo'ed him like a very brither— They had been ...
— The Golden Censer - The duties of to-day, the hopes of the future • John McGovern
... hardly know the tired jade you dismounted from last night, when she is brought out prancing and neighing the next morning, rested, refreshed, and ready to start again—especially if the brute hath some good blood, for such pick up unco fast." ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott
... when your castigated pulse Gi'es now an' then a wallop, What ragings must his veins convulse, That still eternal gallop. Wi' wind an' tide fair i' your tail, Right on ye scud your sea-way; But in the teeth o' baith to sail, It makes an unco lee-way. ...
— English Satires • Various
... owre the sand Where an unco' tide had been, An' Black Donald caught my hand An' coverit up his een: For there, in the wind an' weet, Or ever I saw nor wist, My Jean an' her weans lay cauld at my feet, In the mirk an' ...
— The Haunted Hour - An Anthology • Various
... is not the tawse that ever put wisdom into a head like yon. The boy is unco, the boy is a lusus naturo, that is all; as sharp as a needle when his interest is aroused, as absent as an idiot when it is not, and then no tawse or ...
— Gilian The Dreamer - His Fancy, His Love and Adventure • Neil Munro
... health, sirs," said the shepherd; and having taken off his glass, and observed the whisky was the right thing, he continued, "It's no for the like o' us to be judging, to be sure; but it was a bonny knowe that broomy knowe, and an unco braw shelter for the lambs in a severe morning ...
— The Black Dwarf • Sir Walter Scott
... that," said Mormon, turning in his seat. "You-all want to remember, ma'am, that this is an unco'porated town an' that's there's allus a shortage of law an' order for a whiles wherever there's a strike, gold, oil or whatever 'tis. Eighty per cent. of the rush is a hard-shelled lot an' erlong with 'em is a smaller bunch that thrives best when ...
— Rimrock Trail • J. Allan Dunn
... just died. Preaching on this subject I will have something to say about my own dear, good, anxious mother, and of how she used to say when I was a boy, "What a terrible thing it will be if I see you shut out of heaven!" She did not say terrible; "unco" was ...
— James Gilmour of Mongolia - His diaries, letters, and reports • James Gilmour
... bit house on my land in Libberton's Wynd. Her man's awa, puir body; or they tell me sae; and I'm concerned for her (she's unco bonnie to be left her lane). But it sets me brawly to be finding faut wi' the puir lass, and me an elder, and should be at the plate. (There'll be twa words about this in the Kirk Session.) However, it's nane of my business that brings me, or I should tak' the ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XV • Robert Louis Stevenson
... Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, you know that you are being cheated, and are going to be: at the end you know still more certainly that you have been. You have had nothing of the "Life" but a great deal round rather than about the birth, and a few equivocal, merely glanced at, and utterly unco-ordinated incidents later. If you have had any "opinions" they have been chiefly those of Mr. Tristram Shandy's father and other members of his family, or those of its friends and circle, or of those shadowy personages outside the pretended story, ...
— The English Novel • George Saintsbury
... my bonnie byke! My drappie aiblins blinks the noo, An' leesome luve has lapt the dyke Forgatherin' just a wee bit fou. And SCOTIA! while thy rantin' lunt Is mirk and moop with gowans fine, I'll stowlins pit my unco brunt, An' cleek my ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton
... wi' it, and there's few weemen has mair hair than what I have, or yet a bonnier colour. Often would I tell my dear Miss Jeannie - that was your mother, dear, she was cruel ta'en up about her hair, it was unco' tender, ye see - 'Houts, Miss Jeannie,' I would say, 'just fling your washes and your French dentifrishes in the back o' the fire, for that's the place for them; and awa' down to a burn side, and wash yersel' in cauld hill water, and dry your bonny hair in the ...
— Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson |
