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Miscarry   Listen
verb
Miscarry  v. i.  (past & past part. miscarried; pres. part. miscarrying)  
1.
To carry, or go, wrong; to fail of reaching a destination, or fail of the intended effect; to be unsuccessful; to suffer defeat. "My ships have all miscarried." "The cardinal's letters to the pope miscarried."
2.
To bring forth young before the time they are viable; to have a spontaneous abortion.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Miscarry" Quotes from Famous Books



... we had suffered. While they were thus deliberating upon our fate, we were imploring the succour of the Almighty with fervent and humble supplications, entreating him in the midst of our sighs and tears that he would not suffer his own cause to miscarry, and that, however it might please him to dispose of our lives—which, we prayed, he would assist us to lay down with patience and resignation worthy of the faith for which we were persecuted—he would not permit our enemies to ...
— A Voyage to Abyssinia • Jerome Lobo

... here in boats into the fen country, and over the famous washes into Lincolnshire, but the passage is very dangerous and uneasy, and where passengers often miscarry and are lost; but then it is usually on their venturing at improper times, and without the guides, which if they would be persuaded not to do, they would very rarely fail of going ...
— Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722 • Daniel Defoe

... studio. Agg might have the clue to Marguerite's astounding conduct, though he had it not. He took a hansom, after saying he would walk; he was too impatient for walking. Possibly Marguerite would be at the studio; possibly a letter of hers had miscarried; letters did miscarry. He was in a state of peculiar excitement as he paid ...
— The Roll-Call • Arnold Bennett

... chieftain who had won this signal victory, returned to his village with so moody a brow, that even his own followers durst not utter their rejoicings in his presence. He had been so confident of destroying Dalzell's entire force and his plans had been so well laid, that to have them miscarry through treachery, aroused his utmost fury. Thus he now proposed to deal with the traitors in such a manner that there would be no chance of their example becoming contagious among the warriors who still acknowledged ...
— At War with Pontiac - The Totem of the Bear • Kirk Munroe and J. Finnemore

... of burlapped pieces, while his brain devised the scheme. Thereafter, in the dead of night occurred many whispered consultations, as Vermilion won over his men. He chose shrewdly, for these men knew Pierre Lapierre, and well they knew what portion would be theirs should the scheme of Vermilion miscarry. ...
— The Gun-Brand • James B. Hendryx

... are never so well as when they are nursing, besides, suckling prevents a lady from becoming pregnant so frequently as she otherwise would. This, if she be delicate, is an important consideration, and more especially if she be subject to miscarry. The effects of miscarriage are far more weakening ...
— Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children • Pye Henry Chavasse

... people, they might if they choosed sell at least twelve thousand Bibles and Testaments yearly in Spain, but let them adopt or let any other people adopt any other principle than that on which I act and everything will miscarry. All the difficulties, as I told my friends the time I was in England, which I have had to encounter were owing to the faults and imprudencies of other people, and, I may say, still are owing. Two Methodist schoolmasters have lately settled at Cadiz, and some ...
— George Borrow and His Circle - Wherein May Be Found Many Hitherto Unpublished Letters Of - Borrow And His Friends • Clement King Shorter

... certain other quarters than it did in the Church Street house, where John's going had its mitigations. The lawyers who had arranged the purchase of the Clark interest in the great Field did not really fear that their plans for the cheap capture of the property would ultimately miscarry. But John's death must cause further delay, which might possibly be improved by other interested speculators. And so the legal representatives of the capitalists concerned in the "deal" constituted themselves at once friends and advisers of the ...
— Clark's Field • Robert Herrick

... a wonder, that this expedient should so often miscarry, which requires so much art and genius to arrive at any perfection in it, as any man will find, much sooner than learn by ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. III.: Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church, Vol. I. • Jonathan Swift

... them not, good Jorworth, but through thee; and well I wot thou art not one who will let thy traffic miscarry for want of aid from the ...
— The Betrothed • Sir Walter Scott

... to themselves. They are industrious, prudent, and economical; yet after a long life of striving, old age finds them still poor. They complain of ill luck, they say fate is against them. But the real truth is that their projects miscarry, because they mistake mere activity for energy. Confounding two things essentially different, they suppose that if they are always busy, they must of necessity be advancing their fortunes; forgetting that labor misdirected is ...
— Pushing to the Front • Orison Swett Marden

... be continually with a godly man, whom thou knowest to keep the commandments of the Lord, whose mind is according to thy mind, and will sorrow with thee, if thou shalt miscarry. ...
— Deuteronomical Books of the Bible - Apocrypha • Anonymous

... call me husband? Some barbarian damsel Reared on mare's milk, and nurtured in a tent In Scythia? Well, 'twere better than to mate With some great lady from the Imperial Court, Part tigress and all wanton. I care not; Or if the scheme miscarry, I care ...
— Gycia - A Tragedy in Five Acts • Lewis Morris

... (who has been with Mr. Wilbraham in Persia before, and was strongly recommended to me by Dr. Butler, of Harrow), Robert and William; [1] they constitute my whole suite. I have letters in plenty:—you shall hear from me at the different ports I touch upon; but you must not be alarmed if my letters miscarry. The Continent is in a fine state—an insurrection has broken out at Paris, and the Austrians are beating Buonaparte—the ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals, Vol. 1 • Lord Byron, Edited by Rowland E. Prothero

... abandoned family to his long and penitent written letter. Weeks, months, and a year passed, and no reply came, though another letter was dispatched, for fear of the miscarriage of the first; (and both letters did miscarry, as the wife never received them.) Peter gave himself up as a lost man, his family lost or scattered, and nothing but death could end his detailed wretchedness. But still, as fortune would have it, he never again sought refuge from ...
— The Humors of Falconbridge - A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes • Jonathan F. Kelley

... from suspecting that the expedition might possibly miscarry, seem to have counted, not only on success, but on acquiring sufficient treasure from the enemy to pay their soldiers. The army, finding the government totally unprepared to satisfy its claims, was on the point of mutinying. In this state of difficulty, bills of credit were issued, ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5) • John Marshall

... thet much expec' Millennium by express to-morrer; They will miscarry,—I rec'lec' Tu many on 'em, to my sorrer: Men ain't made angels in a day, 141 No matter how you mould an' labor 'em, Nor 'riginal ones, I guess, don't stay With Abe so of'n ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... these his papers? heav'n what have I done? I'll instantly dispatch them after him Yet that were dang'rous too; they might miscarry; And then in person to return them to him, May cause another interview between us.— What mischiefs have I heap'd ...
— The Female Gamester • Gorges Edmond Howard

... &c. (recede) 282; fall short of &c. 304. miss, miss one's aim, miss the mark, miss one's footing, miss stays; slip, trip, stumble; make a slip &c., n. blunder &c. 495, make a mess of, make a botch of; bitch it|, miscarry, abort, go up like a rocket and come down like the stick, come down in flames, get shot down, reckon without one's host; get the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong sow by the ear &c. (blunder, mismanage) 699. limp, halt, hobble, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... Passover, was located in the fortress of Antonia, overlooking the temple, to intervene in any emergency. And some of the members of the Sanhedrim had even come themselves, so eager were they to see that the design should not miscarry. This composite force was armed with swords and staves—the former weapon belonging perhaps to the Roman soldiers and the latter to the temple police—and they carried lanterns and torches, probably because they expected to have to ...
— The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ - A Devotional History of our Lord's Passion • James Stalker

... and hanging lip of Betty Foy's own Johnny? And does the face-dissolving curfew sound at twelve? How unlike the great originals were your petty terrors in the postscript, not fearful enough to make a fairy shudder, or a Lilliputian fine lady, eight months full of child, miscarry. Yet one of them, which had more beast than the rest, I thought faintly resembled one of your brutifications. But, seriously, I long to see your own honest Manning-face again. I did not mean a pun,—your man's ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

... images over the gates of the city, one of which was named Joyful, and the other Sad, one of resplendent beauty, and the other hideous and deformed, and that whoever entered the town under the former image would succeed in all his undertakings, and under the latter would as certainly miscarry: that he caused a brazen statue to be erected on a mountain near Naples, with a trumpet in his mouth, which when the north wind blew, sounded so shrill as to drive to the sea the fire and smoke which issued from the neighbouring forges of Vulcan: that he built different baths ...
— Lives of the Necromancers • William Godwin

... war aims in detail, and the Germans have not dared publicly to define theirs, our real and sufficient war aim is to break the monstrous and inhuman doctrine and practice of the enemy—to make their calculations miscarry. And observe, if their calculations miscarry, they have fought and suffered for nothing. They entered into this War for profit, and in the conduct of the War, though they have made many mistakes, they have made none of those generous ...
— England and the War • Walter Raleigh

... constituted a medium between man and the unseen powers which controlled his life, literal accuracy was important, otherwise the path between the god and the man would not be straight, and the appeal would miscarry. ...
— Indian Story and Song - from North America • Alice C. Fletcher

... at best, so irregularly, and so often miscarry totally, that for greater security I repeat the same things. So, though I acknowledged by last post Mr. Harte's letter of the 8th September, N. S., I acknowledge it again by this to you. If this should find you still at Verona, let it inform you that I wish ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield

... succeeded according to my anticipation, he might then establish his identity, and place himself at the head of the army, with orders to defend the Chamber assembled, if possible, at a seaport town, where a loyal portion of the fleet should also be present. If the project should miscarry, the Marshal or the General would return and ...
— Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places • Archibald Forbes

... on; if thou art my genius, thou art bound to be answerable for me; I'll have thee hanged, if I miscarry. ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. II • Edited by Walter Scott

... Dennis has remarked, whether justly or not, that, to secure the favourable reception of Cato, the town was poisoned with much false and abominable criticism, and that endeavours had been used to discredit and decry poetical justice. A play in which the wicked prosper, and the virtuous miscarry, may doubtless be good, because it is a just representation of the common events of human life: but since all reasonable beings naturally love justice, I cannot easily be persuaded, that the observation of justice makes a play worse; or, that if other excellencies are equal, the audience will ...
— Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies • Samuel Johnson

... are in this case dangerous, because they that receive the one without the other are subject to miscarry. They were 'once enlightened,' but you read of no thunder they had; and they were subject to fall into an irrecoverable state (Heb 6:4-6). Saul had thunder with his lightnings to the shaking of his soul; so had the three thousand; so had the ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... consider the varied effects of indifference we find we miscarry more in our duties than ...
— Reflections - Or, Sentences and Moral Maxims • Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld

... I engage in many matters, in most miscarry. Am sent to prison; says I to myself, I am become foolish. Am turned out of prison, and go back to the hairy ones, who receive me not over courteously; says I, for their unkindness, and my own foolishness, all the thanks to that gorgio. Answers to me the child, "I ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow

... enter my convent cell I am permitted to cast a look upon the world I am now to leave for a life of prayer and solitude. That look is to you, who have been the whole world to me in these last months. My voice will reach you, if my calculations do not miscarry, at the moment of a ceremony I am unable to take ...
— Beatrix • Honore de Balzac

... conscience should be steeled and a heart transformed into brass, so as to bear the weight of such responsibility; and on the other hand the necessity for such leaders, the dreadful danger that they might be lacking, or miscarry and degenerate:—these are OUR real anxieties and glooms, ye know it well, ye free spirits! these are the heavy distant thoughts and storms which sweep across the heaven of OUR life. There are few pains so grievous ...
— Beyond Good and Evil • Friedrich Nietzsche

... the night train, the only one she could get to Rock Springs. I asked her had she overslept. "No, I didna," she replied. Then, she proceeded to tell me that, as she had paid for a whole night's use of a room, she had stayed to get its use. That it had made her plans miscarry ...
— Letters of a Woman Homesteader • Elinore Pruitt Stewart

... aiming at a new construction, we must clearly conceive what is aimed at. Where we have a very distinct and intelligible model before us, we are in a fair way to succeed; in proportion as the ideal is dim and wavering, we stagger or miscarry." Maudsley says: "We cannot do an act voluntarily unless we know what we are going to do, and we cannot know exactly what we are going to do until we have taught ourselves to do it." Carpenter says: "The continued concentration of attention upon a certain idea gives it a dominant power, not only ...
— A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga • Yogi Ramacharaka

... moving—how little it looked on that endless plain!—pass on their rapid way to fame, to unpurchased promotion, as a matter of course to responsibility also, till, their fortune turning upon them, they miscarry in the latter fatally. They joined in fact a distinguished regiment in a gallant army, immediately after a victory in those Flemish regions; shared its encouragement as fully as if they had had a share in its perils; the high character ...
— Miscellaneous Studies: A Series of Essays • Walter Horatio Pater

... Mr Limberham and father Aldo are just returned; I saw them entering. My settlement will miscarry, if you are found here: ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 6 (of 18) - Limberham; Oedipus; Troilus and Cressida; The Spanish Friar • John Dryden

... the law, which is therefore silent on the subject; but they insist that the greater number of those who are commonly said to die, have never yet been born—not, at least, into that unseen world which is alone worthy of consideration. As regards this unseen world I understand them to say that some miscarry in respect to it before they have even reached the seen, and some after, while few are ever truly born into it at all—the greater part of all the men and women over the whole country miscarrying before they reach ...
— Erewhon • Samuel Butler

... in comparison of him. I am placed between our host and his nephew. The latter comes in for a good deal of my conversation, as most of my remarks have to be taken up and rebellowed by him with a loud emphasis, that contrasts absurdly with their triviality; and even then they mostly miscarry, and ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton

... child, and threatened to miscarry, if her rival was preferred; Miss Stewart threatened, that she never would be with child, if her request was not granted. This menace prevailed, and Lady Castlemaine's rage was so great, that she had almost kept her word; ...
— The Memoirs of Count Grammont, Complete • Anthony Hamilton

... of a widespread German intrigue in Russia, facts which will, I feel confident, amaze your Excellency. When I return I shall place in your hands weapons by which the enemy may be combated. I hesitate to send any documents through the post in case they miscarry, and I am addressing this letter to Mademoiselle Pauline, as your ...
— The Minister of Evil - The Secret History of Rasputin's Betrayal of Russia • William Le Queux

... what you do, Mr. Thorwald," said Gascoyne, gravely. "If my plans miscarry, you will be killed every soul of you. You'll not have the ghost ...
— Gascoyne, The Sandal Wood Trader - A Tale of the Pacific • R. M. Ballantyne

... invoices of such Goods as were wanting for myself Estate etc, but knowing that the latter unfortunately foundered at Sea soon after her departure from Virginia and that the former may probably have suffered by that Storm or some other accident, by which means my Letters &c would miscarry I take this oppertunity by way of Bristol of addressing Copies of them, and over and above the things there wrote for to desire the favour of you to send me a neat Grait (for Coal or small Faggots) in the newest taste and of a size to fit a ...
— Seaport in Virginia - George Washington's Alexandria • Gay Montague Moore

... wholly unprepared for winter travel, and hence must complete our work and make our way out of the wilderness before the rivers and lakes froze and canoe travel became impossible. Hubbard felt the responsibility he had assumed, and could imagine the difficulties that awaited us should his plans miscarry. Accordingly, he began to look around immediately among the fishermen and livyeres for someone with a small boat willing to take us down the fifty miles to Rigolet. Finally, after much persuasion and an offer of fifteen dollars, he induced a young livyere, Steve Newell ...
— The Lure of the Labrador Wild • Dillon Wallace

... told to thee, brave Christian," said the Saracen; "but I swear to thee, by the turban of the Prophet, that shouldst thou miscarry in any haunt of such villains, I will myself undertake thy revenge with five thousand horse. I will slay every male of them, and send their women into such distant captivity that the name of their tribe shall never again be heard within ...
— The Talisman • Sir Walter Scott

... together, no man had any chance to be heard, unless he could bawl louder than his fellows. It must be owned, however, there was nothing pedantic in their discourse; they carefully avoided all learned disquisitions, and endeavoured to be facetious; nor did their endeavours always miscarry; some droll repartee passed, and much laughter was excited; and if any individual lost his temper so far as to transgress the bounds of decorum, he was effectually checked by the master of the feast, who exerted a sort of paternal authority over ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... and I am now drawing bills for that sum, wherefore I must pray your Excellency to take measures, that they be put in cash to answer my drafts. Although I have no doubt that this will be done on the Chevalier de la Luzerne's application, yet as his letters may miscarry, or other unavoidable misfortune happen, I take this additional precaution, because it is of the utmost importance to the United States, that these bills ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. XI • Various

... made reply that he doubted his jurisdiction in the matter; but that he would consider. Fearful lest the matter should miscarry or be shelved, Borrow called on the evening of the same day upon the British Minister, the Hon. J. D. Bligh, "a person of superb talents, kind disposition, and of much piety," {114b} whose friendship Borrow had "assiduously cultivated," ...
— The Life of George Borrow • Herbert Jenkins

... from Ulm, but I only received that letter last night on my arrival here from Scotland, and I know not how long its rightful delivery to me has been delayed. I fear, in consequence of this circumstance, this answer to it may miscarry; for perhaps you will have left Munich by the time it gets there. However, I can but do as you bid me, and so I do it, and hope this, for me, rare exercise of the virtue of obedience may find its reward in ...
— Records of Later Life • Frances Anne Kemble

... to the strong Ale, where goody Trundell had her maid got with child: O he knows the stars. He'll tickle you Charles Waine in nine degrees. That same man will tell you goody Trundell when her Ale shall miscarry, only by the stars. ...
— Cromwell • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]

... son that is by his father sent about merchandise, do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him: or if a servant, under his master's command, transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers, ...
— The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded • Delia Bacon

... Roberval I have come to speak," said Charles, with a sternness which made the nobleman tremble lest his plans should miscarry. "Since I returned to France, two months ago, strange tales of your brutal treatment of your niece have reached my ears. I have come to you to find out the truth of these tales. If they are true, I will cut you off as a cursed thing among men. If ...
— Marguerite De Roberval - A Romance of the Days of Jacques Cartier • T. G. Marquis

... been tempted of late to think M. de Rambouillet fickle, I had no reason to complain now; whether his attitude was due to M. d'Agen's representations, or to the reflection that without me the plans he had at heart must miscarry. I found him waiting within, attended by three gentlemen, all cloaked and ready for the road; while the air of purpose, which sat on his brow indicated that he thought the crisis no common one. Not a moment ...
— A Gentleman of France • Stanley Weyman

... unembarrassed by any such scruples, lifted himself up from his hiding place, and hurled the stone upon the soldier, fully expecting to hit him on the head, and dash out his brains. The best laid calculations often miscarry, and Tom's did in part, for the missile, instead of striking the soldier upon the head, hit him on the right arm. The musket was discharged, either by the blow or by the act of its owner, and fell out of ...
— The Soldier Boy; or, Tom Somers in the Army - A Story of the Great Rebellion • Oliver Optic

... assembled at Paris, again caused this project to miscarry, and, in their name, GREGOIRE compiled two consultations against the transferring of Sunday to the decade. The adhesion of all the clergy was the fruit of his labour; but all this drew on him numerous outrages, the indigence to which he was at that time reduced, and ...
— Paris As It Was and As It Is • Francis W. Blagdon

... well fitted by education as others for political affairs I know not, though I should rather think they have advantage above others, and even if they would but keep to their Bibles, might make the best Ministers of State in the world; yet it is generally observed that things miscarry under their government. If there be any council more precipitate, more violent, more extreme than other, it is theirs. Truly, I think the reason that God does not bless them in affairs of State is because he never intended them ...
— Andrew Marvell • Augustine Birrell

... and misconduct man at large presents: of organised injustice, cowardly violence and treacherous crime; and of the damning imperfections of the best. They cannot be too darkly drawn. Man is indeed marked for failure in his efforts to do right. But where the best consistently miscarry, how tenfold more remarkable that all should continue to strive; and surely we should find it both touching and inspiriting, that in a field from which success is banished, our race should ...
— Across The Plains • Robert Louis Stevenson

... Honey he was going to take her on his trip West. He would do that after church, if a certain important detail of his plan did not miscarry. Although he paid respectful attention to the sermon, Skinner's thoughts were at work on something not religious, and he was relieved when the doxology was finished and the blessing asked. Unlike most of the others present, Skinner ...
— Skinner's Dress Suit • Henry Irving Dodge

... the twenty-fifth of September near sun-set, as the admiral was discoursing with Pinzon, whose ship was then very near, Pinzon suddenly called out, "Land! land, Sir! let not my good news miscarry." And pointed out a large mass in the S.W. about twenty-five leagues distant, which seemed very like an island. This was so pleasing to the people, that they returned thanks to God for the pleasing ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III. • Robert Kerr

... was up and down a good deal during the night. But for the treasure I should have been less anxious, I dare say. I had come so successfully to this point that I was resolved, if my hopes were to miscarry, the misfortune should not be owing to want of vigilance on my part; and there happened an incident which inevitably tended to sharpen my watchfulness, though I was perfectly conscious there was ...
— The Frozen Pirate • W. Clark Russell

... it, that you often, at committees, put an able speaker into the chair on purpose to prevent him from stopping a bill. Why, if it were no more than this, I believe I should hardly choose, even among my footmen, such a one to deliver a message, whose interest and opinions led him to wish it might miscarry. But I remember to have heard old Colonel Birch[4] of Herefordshire say, that "he was a very sorry Speaker, whose single vote was not better than fifty common ones." I am sure it is reckoned in England the first great test of the prevalency of either party in the House. Sir Thomas Littleton[5] ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Vol. VII - Historical and Political Tracts—Irish • Jonathan Swift

... have done) recommended him to leave the island; and I remember very well how wise and kind we thought his answer. He had half-caste children (he said) who would suffer and perhaps be despised if he carried them elsewhere; if he left them there alone, they would almost certainly miscarry; and the best thing was that he should stay and die with them. But the cream of the fun was your meeting with Buckland. We not only know him, but (as the French say) we don't know anybody else; he is our intimate and ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 25 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... inoculated small-pox is given under all the most favourable circumstances I believe less than one in a thousand miscarry, which may be ascribed to some unavoidable accident, such as the patient having previously received the infection, or being about to be ill of some other disease. Those which have lately miscarried under inoculation, as far as has come to my knowledge, have been chiefly ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... another world that may be in secret communication with certain esoteric ones of this earth's inhabitants—and of messages in symbols like hoof marks that are sent to some receptor, or special hill, upon this earth—and of messages that at times miscarry. ...
— The Book of the Damned • Charles Fort

... surprised, and said: "Why, I posted a letter to you in the morning announcing that the party was 'off, very much off.'" I said: "I never got it." Gowing, turning to Carrie, said: "I suppose letters sometimes MISCARRY, don't they, MRS. Carrie?" Cummings sharply said: "This is not a time for joking. I had no notice of the party being put off." Gowing replied: "I told Pooter in my note to tell you, as I was in a hurry. However, I'll inquire at the post-office, and we must ...
— The Diary of a Nobody • George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith

... this reservation, and made it with all severity, it is impossible for us not to admire, whether they succeed or not, those the glorious combatants of the future, the confessors of Utopia. Even when they miscarry, they are worthy of veneration; and it is, perhaps, in failure, that they possess the most majesty. Victory, when it is in accord with progress, merits the applause of the people; but a heroic defeat ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... main and chief point of the work I am wont to resign to Heaven." This is a much more exact coincidence than is presented in the passage cited by Mr. Feis from the essay OF PHYSIOGNOMY:—[13] "Therefore do our designs so often miscarry.... The heavens are angry, and I may say envious of the extension and large privilege we ascribe to human wisdom, to the prejudice of theirs, and abridge them so much more unto us by so much more we endeavour to amplify ...
— Montaigne and Shakspere • John M. Robertson

... much and causes many weaknesses; and by being too cold and foggy, it may bring down rheums and distillations on the lungs, and so cause her to cough, which, by its impetuous motion, forcing downwards, may make her miscarry. She ought alway to avoid all nauseous and ill smells; for sometimes the stench of a candle, not well put out, may cause her to come before time; and I have known the smell of charcoal to have the same effect. Let her also avoid smelling of rue, ...
— The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher • Anonymous

... her sentiments, her true and prevailing character, did not appear in the lines of her face. She seemed equal to anything, but might not choose to put forth her strength. You felt that a great possibility lay behind that brow, but you felt, also, that the talent that was in her might miscarry through indifference or caprice. ...
— Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Vol. I • Margaret Fuller Ossoli

... to the tower, We rifled the kist, and the cattle we maimed; Our dirks stabbed at guess through the leaves o' the bower, And crimes we committed that needna be named: Moonlight or dawning grey, Lammas or Lady-day, Donald maun dabble his plaid in the gore; He maun hough and maun harry, or should he miscarry, The Hielan's, the Hielan's will own ...
— John Splendid - The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn • Neil Munro

... bridge over the embarrassing pause by suggesting that perhaps the letter had never been received, but he waved aside the suggestion as unworthy of consideration. I gathered from what he said that royal letters do not miscarry. ...
— The New Frontiers of Freedom from the Alps to the AEgean • Edward Alexander Powell

... is merely founded upon human policy must be always subject to human chance; but that which is founded on the divine wisdom can no more miscarry than the government of heaven. To govern by parties and factions is the advice of an atheist, and sets up a government by the spirit of Satan. In such a government the prince can never be secure under the greatest promises, since, as men's interest changes, so will ...
— Dickory Cronke - The Dumb Philosopher, or, Great Britain's Wonder • Daniel Defoe

... began to see the glimmerings of a plan for saving my life, and by God's grace, for saving my country from the horrors of rebellion. The more I thought the better I liked it. It demanded a bold front, and it might well miscarry, but I had taken such desperate hazards during the past days that I was less afraid of fortune. Anyhow, the choice lay between certain death and a slender chance of life, and it was easy ...
— Prester John • John Buchan

... Take, man: why, it cannot choose but take, if the circumstances miscarry not, but tell me zealously: dost thou affect my sister Hesperida, ...
— Every Man In His Humour • Ben Jonson

... meant that the Athenians had better remain quiet. The astronomer, Meton, who was appointed to some office in the army, either because of these adverse omens and prophecies, or because he was convinced that the expedition would miscarry, pretended to be mad and to set fire to his house. Some historians relate that he did not feign madness, but that he burned down his house one night, and next morning appeared in the market-place in a miserable plight, and besought his countrymen that, in consideration of the ...
— Plutarch's Lives Volume III. • Plutarch

... ye That fight the clergy, And pull the mitre from the prelate's head, That you will be wary Lest you miscarry In all those factious humours you have bred; But as for BROWNISTS we'll have none, But take them all and hang them ...
— Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 • Charles Mackay

... Circumstance, or lower Consideration; as, what they shall give with them, or to whom to commit the Care of them, &c. Thus they after contrive unsuitable Marriages, on the single View of worldly Advantage. From this Cause proceed fatal Effects, and many young Men of great Hopes, and good Capacities, miscarry in the after Conduct of Life, and prove useless or mischievous to the World. They turn off from a disagreeable Employment, and run into Idleness and Extravagance. If People better consider'd the peculiar Genius or proper Talents of their Children, and took their ...
— 'Of Genius', in The Occasional Paper, and Preface to The Creation • Aaron Hill

... said, 'if this miscarry I run a scant risk. For, if this be a treason, this treason is well enough known already to them you wot of. They might have had my head this six years on one shift or another had they so dared. So to me it matters little.—But ...
— The Fifth Queen • Ford Madox Ford

... lives snugly retired in the country, that he may not from the extremity of the sandy amphitheater so often supplicate the people's favor. Some one seems frequently to ring in my purified ear: "Wisely in time dismiss the aged courser, lest, an object of derision, he miscarry at last, and break his wind." Now therefore I lay aside both verses, and all other sportive matters; my study and inquiry is after what is true and fitting, and I am wholly engaged in this: I lay up, and collect rules which ...
— The Works of Horace • Horace

... against his King, a Burnet plotting for an archbishopric, an ugly Dutch monsterkin on the throne—and a naughty rogue called Stella, that hath forgot her old tutor and loves him no more. Yet if that love should miscarry, I know not—" ...
— The Ladies - A Shining Constellation of Wit and Beauty • E. Barrington

... London by this day's mail, and now could not reach till the day after to-morrow—four-and-twenty hours later than was promised. The attorney had told him it was a 'touch-and-go affair,' and the whole thing might be off in a moment; and if it should miscarry what inevitable ruin yawned before him? Oh, the fatigue of these monotonous agitations—this never-ending suspense! Oh, the yearning unimaginable for quiet and rest! How awfully he comprehended the reasonableness of the thanksgiving which he had read that ...
— Wylder's Hand • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... box & subscribe it to yourself ... & will so write it that neither wife nor children shall know thereof." If Winthrop should succeed in bringing the work to perfection, Brewster begs him to remember his wife and children. "I mean if this my work should miscarry by wars of the Indians, for I may not remove it till it be perfected, otherwise I should so unsettle the body by removing sun & moon out of their settled places, that there would then be no other afterworking." ...
— Among My Books - First Series • James Russell Lowell

... and transparently holds back the crushing thoughts of misadventure for which he may be held responsible by the misanthropic, scurrilous, self-assertive experts. His impassive periods were always associated with whimsical sensitiveness of being censured if his adventures should miscarry. No one knew better than he that a man in his position could only be popular if he continued to succeed. He had many critics, but always regarded them as inferior to himself, and his record justified him. What he secretly quaked at and openly defied was a general outburst of human ...
— Drake, Nelson and Napoleon • Walter Runciman

... after the pope's annulment of this marriage, but contented at the thought that he had probably left an inheritance of dispute and possible warfare which might be sufficient to make Bereuguela's plans miscarry. But in this he reckoned without his host. Berenguela conducted her affairs with the utmost discretion, conciliated the Leonese nobility, caused her son to be proclaimed king, and brought about a permanent union of the two countries without the loss of ...
— Women of the Romance Countries • John R. Effinger

... abdominal section. Recovery of the woman without abortion ensued. The Revue de Chirurgien 1887, contains an account of a woman who suffered internal strangulation, on whom celiotomy was performed; she recovered in twenty-five days, and did not miscarry, which shows that severe injury to the intestine with operative interference does not necessarily interrupt pregnancy. Gilmore, without inducing abortion, extirpated the kidney of a negress, aged thirty-three, for severe and constant pain. Tiffany removed the kidney ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... unteachable. For the sun, which we want, ripens wits as well as fruits; and as wine and oil are imported to us from abroad, so must ripe understanding and many civil virtues be imported into our minds from foreign writings and examples of best ages; we shall else miscarry still, and come short in the attempts of any great enterprise. Hence did their victories prove as fruitless as their losses dangerous, and left them still, conquering, under the same grievances that men suffer conquered: which was indeed unlikely to go otherwise, unless men more than vulgar—bred ...
— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various

... Character must be bold, but not extravagant. Nature must not be distorted, to excite either Ridicule or Admiration. Reason must hold the Reins of the Imagination: Judgment must direct the Fancy; otherwise we shall be apt to miscarry, and connect inconsistent Ideas, at the very Time, when we think we hit the Point of Humour to ...
— A Critical Essay on Characteristic-Writings - From his translation of The Moral Characters of Theophrastus (1725) • Henry Gally

... eye, and mouth gaping like a volcano; pile mountains atop of your shoulders, or plump yourselves out into Falstaffs; and as a whet to your inventions I promise a kiss from the bride to the figure that would be the likeliest to make her miscarry. A wedding is such an out-of-the-way event in ones life; the bride and bridegroom are so suddenly plunged, by a sort of magic, head over heels into a new unaccustomed element, that it is impossible to throw too much madness and ...
— The Old Man of the Mountain, The Lovecharm and Pietro of Abano - Tales from the German of Tieck • Ludwig Tieck

... way to make any awakening impossible for her. For the last three days la Peyrade had been measuring himself for the task; he had carefully reconnoitred the ground to see all difficulty. Flattery, that almost infallible means in able hands, would certainly miscarry with a woman who for years had known she had no beauty. But a man of strong will finds nothing impregnable; the Lamarques could never have failed to take Capri. Therefore, nothing must be omitted from the memorable scene which was now to take place; all things about ...
— The Lesser Bourgeoisie • Honore de Balzac

... side they expected; often making a circuit of several leagues so as to attack them unexpectedly on the flank and rear, and always carefully avoiding every piece of ground that had not a natural appearance. The Peruvians tried another stratagem, on seeing the former miscarry: They dug a great number of small pits close to each other, about the size of a horses foot, in every place around their camp where they thought the cavalry might come to attack them. But all their arts ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr

... sense, and a politician. Harold, his competitor, was a prince much superior in power, a consummate general, and beloved by his people. The odds were so much against the invader, that out of one hundred such imprudent attempts, ninety-nine would miscarry: all the excuse in his favour is, it succeeded. Many causes concurred in this success, such as his own ambition, aided by his valour; the desperate fortune of his followers, very few of whom were men of property, for to the appearance ...
— An History of Birmingham (1783) • William Hutton

... hearing both sides of the case, delivered this judgment: "Since the donkey's hoof is broken, let the Brahman carry the donkey's load for the washerman until the donkey is again fit for work; and let the washerman make the Brahman's wife pregnant again, since he made her miscarry." When the Brahman and his wife heard this decision, they, in their despair, took poison and died; and when the king heard of it, he put to death ...
— Filipino Popular Tales • Dean S. Fansler

... should spend his life or, rather, does spend his life in being born. His life is his birth throes. But most men miscarry and never come to the true birth at all and some live but a very short time in a very little world and none are eternal. Still, the life we live beyond the grave is our truest life, and our happiest, for we ...
— The Note-Books of Samuel Butler • Samuel Butler

... has sent me weary-hearted to bed and desperate in heart to morning work, that has made my plans miscarry until I am a coward, that cuts me off from prayer, that robs the sky of blueness and the earth of springtime, and the air of freshness, and human faces of friendliness,—this blasting sin which perhaps has made my bed ...
— Daily Strength for Daily Needs • Mary W. Tileston

... with the crow in the bottom of the pits, to receive the set, and breaking the turf which came out of it, ramm'd it in with the mould close to the sets (as they would do to fix a gate-post) with great care not to gall the bark of it. He had divers times before this miscarry'd, when he us'd formerly to set them in plain ground, without breaking the surface, and laying it close to the sets; and therefore, if the soil be moist, he digs a trench by the side of the row, and ...
— Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) - Or A Discourse of Forest Trees • John Evelyn

... divine essence of truth and right and freedom, we do not rightly understand. A thousand falsehoods are cluttered around the truth to conceal it from us. I call you back, O my Brothers, to the good old virtues of our ancestors. Without these the Revolution will miscarry and our Dastur will not be worth a date-stone. Our ancestors,—they never bowed their proud neck to tyranny, whether represented in an autocrat or in a body of autocrats; they never betrayed their friends; they never soiled ...
— The Book of Khalid • Ameen Rihani

... miscarry, my deare brother, You and your sonne shall then enjoy the land And all the goods ...
— A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV. • Editor: A.H. Bullen

... If a man has struck a free woman with child, and has caused her to miscarry, he shall pay ten ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters • C. H. W. Johns

... said I, "can you not take me up again on your return?" He told me it would not be possible to do so; that the merchants would never allow him to come that way with a laden ship of such value, it being a month's sail out of his way, and might be three or four. "Besides, sir, if I should miscarry," said he, "and not return at all, then you would be just reduced to the ...
— The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe

... liaison between the French and British armies; and his subsequent operations were ineffective attempts to prepare the ground for a final offensive which he was never allowed to begin. It would have been doomed to miscarry in any case, for his preliminaries exhausted the forces intended for the final effort, and the battles in Flanders had enhanced the failure of his original design. He took four weeks to prepare for a second subsidiary operation, and ...
— A Short History of the Great War • A.F. Pollard

... am he who now is thy succor, Bearing thee in my hands. For stronger and readier I than a hundred thousand mortal retainers; I am the Lord of victory loving valor? I rejoice in the brave and give them good counsel, And he whom I counsel certainly shall not miscarry." ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... as if I was going to send you the first three chapters of my Grandfather. . . . If they were set up, it would be that much anxiety off my mind. I have a strange feeling of responsibility, as if I had my ancestors' SOULS in my charge, and might miscarry with them. ...
— Vailima Letters • Robert Louis Stevenson

... that the imagination has not time to brood long over any disagreeable idea, or sensation. As a Frenchman piques himself on his gallantry, he no sooner makes a conquest of a female's heart, than he exposes her character, for the gratification of his vanity. Nay, if he should miscarry in his schemes, he will forge letters and stories, to the ruin of the lady's reputation. This is a species of perfidy which one would think should render them odious and detestable to the whole sex; but the case is otherwise. I beg your ...
— Travels Through France and Italy • Tobias Smollett

... produce some short, joking, half-affectionate reply, but would not draw from him that serious word which was so necessary for the success of her scheme. Therefore she had told him that she intended to prepare a serious missile. Should this pleasant little message of love miscarry, the serious missile would still be sent, and the ...
— The American Senator • Anthony Trollope

... had sent this away, I began to fear it might miscarry and resolved to try another one. I wrote a letter to my brother Flint, at Tillsonburg, Ontario, in which I used these words, "I want you to look into this for me"; later on in the letter, when speaking of quite innocent matters which had nothing to ...
— Three Times and Out • Nellie L. McClung

... terror at seeing him accidents are most likely to follow. Keep him from your children, or they will break their legs, arms, or necks. Look not at him from your carriage, or it will upset. Let him not see your wife when she is enceinte, or she will miscarry, or you will have a monster for a son. Never invite him to a ball, unless you wish to see your chandelier smash, or the floor give way. Invite him not to dinner, or your mushrooms will poison you, and your fish will smell. If he wishes you buon ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 32, June, 1860 • Various

... plan of battle miscarry so fatally and Bragg's come so near absolute success? The fault was not the plan as conceived by the former. The near success of the latter proved a vindication of that. The originator of the plan was not at fault personally, ...
— The Army of the Cumberland • Henry M. Cist



Words linked to "Miscarry" :   fail, screw up, abort, fall through, carry to term, bodge, bumble, strike out, fumble, fuck up, go wrong, bollix up, foul up, flop, mess up, bungle, louse up, fall, blow, botch up, mishandle, spoil, bollocks, muff, muck up, shipwreck, fall flat, bollocks up, bollix, succeed, founder, miss, botch, miscarriage, bobble, ball up, take it on the chin, fluff



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