"Oldish" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... was given me at once, and an oldish man, who preserved his head in the midst of this turmoil, got my baggage registered, and counselled me to stay quietly where I was till he should give me the word to move. I had taken along with me a small valise, a knapsack, which I carried on my shoulders, and in the bag of my ...
— Across The Plains • Robert Louis Stevenson
... plant belongs to a distinct sub-order of the Leguminosae from Cassia. Both cotyledons of an oldish seedling, with the first true leaf partially unfolded, were rubbed for 1 m. with a fine twig, and in 5 m. each rose 32o; they [page 127] remained in this position for 15 m., but when looked at again 40 m. after the rubbing, each had fallen 14o. Both cotyledons of another and younger seedling ...
— The Power of Movement in Plants • Charles Darwin
... it is from Miss Diana, to be divided between Bobby and me. Unfortunately father chanced to be at home the first time he came and got it all, so we got none of it. But he was out the other times. The butler is an oldish man, and a very strange one. He went about ...
— Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished - A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure • R.M. Ballantyne
... funny," mused the detective, as one nonplussed. "The name's just as familiar as an old song. Is your Doctor Farnham a sort of oldish man?" ...
— The Price • Francis Lynde
... subjects ready, exchanged notebooks, climbed over desks, fetched themselves pies and sandwiches from the vestibule, and ate them then and there merely lowering their heads to the level of a desk for propriety's sake. Lastly, the third class of candidates (which seemed a small one) consisted of oldish men—some of them in frock coats, but the majority in jackets, and with no linen to be seen. These preserved a serious demeanour, sat by themselves, and had a very dingy look. The man who had afforded me consolation ...
— Youth • Leo Tolstoy
... their work. One was Victor Masse, a composer of simple light operas and a man with no understanding of a symphony, who was very frequently ill and had to entrust his teaching to one of his pupils; another was Henri Reber, an oldish musician with narrow and dogmatic ideas; and the third was Francois Bazin, who was not capable of distinguishing in his pupil's fugues a false answer from a true one, and whose highest title to glory is derived from a composition called Le ...
— Musicians of To-Day • Romain Rolland
... had quietly reentered the room, in company with an oldish, half-foreign-looking man, evidently his relation. With no helping recollection, with no means of comparison beyond a vague idea that his cousin might look like himself, Clarence stood hopelessly before him. ...
— A Waif of the Plains • Bret Harte
... Oldish young men and youngish old men gravitated about him, their faces curiously identical. These were the irresponsible-eyed, casual-mannered individuals, seemingly neither at work nor at play, who were to visit the courts, the police, the wrecks, ...
— Erik Dorn • Ben Hecht
... wrote in defence of the Independents against Thomas Edwards, he says, "People wondered who this she-Brownist, Katherine Chidley, was, and did not quite lose their interest in her when they found that she was an oldish woman, and a member of some hole-and-corner congregation in London. Indeed, she put her nails into Mr. Edwards with some effect." Why did he not say at once, after the good old fashion, that she "set her ten commandments in his face"? In another place he speaks of "Satan standing with ...
— Among My Books • James Russell Lowell
... that galliant knight is oldish, Although Sir John as gray, gray air, Hage has not made his busum coldish, His Art still beats tewodds ...
— Ballads • William Makepeace Thackeray
... Tahitians aboard, both females. One was an oldish woman, ugly and waspish. She counted her beads and spoke to me in French of the consolations of the Catholic religion. She had been to America for an operation, but despaired of ever being well, and so was melancholy and devout. I talked to her about ...
— Mystic Isles of the South Seas. • Frederick O'Brien
... twenty years and more ago now. He was oldish even then as a young man, just as he is oldish still in middle age. Long may his industrious elderliness flourish for the good of the world! He lectured a little in conversation then; he lectures more ...
— The New Machiavelli • Herbert George Wells
... presently oaths and protests came from far back and drew nearer and nearer, until I knew that the some one who had refused to answer had been duly secured. The gates themselves were finally flung open, and I saw that an oldish man of immense stature had been driven to do this work—a man who, so far from being afraid, was only held in check by a loaded revolver being kept steadily against his back. The Shantung man's face had become devilish with rage, and I could see that he ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale
... Henry Ryecroft, who, after a night of untroubled rest, rise unhurriedly, dress with the deliberation of an oldish man, and go downstairs happy in the thought that I can sit reading, quietly reading, all day long? Is it I, Henry Ryecroft, the harassed toiler of so many a ...
— The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft • George Gissing
... oldish-looking soldier, with a heavy moustache already tinged with grey, came up to him, Teddy turned to ...
— Teddy's Button • Amy Le Feuvre
... Against his knee rested the head of a third man—one of the three I had first seen sitting amidships. When the other two toppled overboard this one had slid off the thwart and fallen against the steersman. He was an oldish man, yellow and thin and marked with the small-pox; the only one in the boat who might have come from some other country than Norway. His eyes were cast down in a quiet way, and he seemed to be smiling. He wore a seaman's loose frock, ...
— Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts • A. T. Quiller-Couch
... you, you know. And as for clubs and things, why, I've got some oldish ones that will do fairly well; a beginner doesn't need extra good ones, you see. And then, for clothes—well, I guess fellows have played in ordinary trousers and coat; and I've played myself in ...
— The Half-Back • Ralph Henry Barbour
... raged on all sides. It was not long before Bakunin too put in an appearance, principally in search of a good officer—who was not, however, forthcoming. The commandant of a large contingent from the Vogtland, an oldish man, raised Bakunin's hopes by the impassioned energy of his speeches, and he would have had him appointed commandant-general on the spot. But it seemed as if any real decision were impossible in that frenzy and confusion, ...
— My Life, Volume I • Richard Wagner
... talking noisily, and beside them shouting, gesticulating, making dashes, now for one, now for another—was a figure, which David at once set himself to watch, his chin balanced on his hand, his eyes dancing. It was the thin tall figure of an oldish man in a long frock-coat, which opened in front over a gaily flowered silk waistcoat. On the bald crown of his head he wore a black skull cap, below which certain grotesque and scanty tails of fair hair, carefully brushed, fell to his shoulders. His face was long and sharply pointed, ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... beyond, at a small bunch of flimsy clapboard houses called Kennerville. Here was the first stop of its early morning outbound train, and here a dozen or so passengers always poked their heads out of the windows. This morning they saw an oldish black man step off, doff his hat delightedly to two young men waiting at the platform's edge, pass them a ticket, and move across to a pair of saddled horses. The smaller of the pair stepped upon the last coach, but kept his companion's hand till ...
— Kincaid's Battery • George W. Cable
... a mask of premature age, and threatened soon to disfigure her entirely. And yet, from habit, and through passive obedience to routine, Maria-Jose continued to dress like a young girl of eighteen, in brightly colored gowns, thin waists and white hats that ill became her frail and oldish face. ...
— Brazilian Tales • Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis
... bath room, private or public, in Brownsville in those days. Wash tubs were used in winter, the creek and river in summer. Once there came an oldish, high-toned lady from Richmond. She lodged with Isaac Vance at the Marshall House. He bought a new carpet and other fine furnishings for her room. It was an unusually warm summer. One day Vance noticed ...
— Watch Yourself Go By • Al. G. Field
... that in patches the soil showed through like the hide of a mangy hound. The creek was swollen by the April rains and ran bank-full through raw, red walls. Old Pegleg came cantering along with his rifle balanced on the sliding withers of his mare-mule, for he rode without a saddle. He was an oldish man and fat for a mountaineer. A ten-year-old nephew rode behind him, with his short arms encircling his uncle's paunch. The old man wore a dirty white shirt with a tabbed bosom; a single shiny white china button held the neckband ...
— The Escape of Mr. Trimm - His Plight and other Plights • Irvin S. Cobb
... An oldish man of tremendous girth, but who sat his horse easily despite his size, grinned down at Jack. He was white-haired and under the brim of his sombrero little eyes twinkled genially and shrewdly ...
— The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border • Gerald Breckenridge
... out to dry between the trees, like a lot of washerwomen. They looked very much like middle-aged washerwomen on the platform, too. But the girl had been living in the main building along with the boss, the director, the fellow with the black beard, and a hard-bitten, oldish woman who took the piano and was understood to be the ...
— Victory • Joseph Conrad
... springy, considering his weight,' said Mr. Macey, 'and he stamps uncommon well. But Mr. Lammeter beats 'em all for shapes; you see he holds his head like a sodger, and he isn't so cushiony as most o' the oldish gentlefolks,—they ran fat in gineral;—and he's got a fine leg. The parson's nimble enough, but he hasn't got much of a leg: it's a bit too thick downward, and his knees might be a bit nearer without damage; but he might do worse, he might do worse. Though he ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 108, October, 1866 • Various
... new places to eat in and poke fun at. There was a swell girl in a 40 H.-P. auto tan coat and veil, and a fat old man with white side-whiskers, and a young chap that couldn't keep his feet off the tail of the girl's coat, and an oldish lady that looked upon life as immoral and unnecessary. 'How perfectly delightful,' they says, 'to sup in a slosh.' Up the stairs they go; and in half a minute back down comes the girl, her skirts swishing like the waves on ...
— Roads of Destiny • O. Henry
... independent nature; and, besides, the lessons I had received in my uncle's household made me shrink from incurring the obligation of any one's hospitality, especially that of one with whom I had only such brief acquaintanceship, albeit he was "an orphan"—a rather oldish one, I thought—"like myself." ...
— On Board the Esmeralda - Martin Leigh's Log - A Sea Story • John Conroy Hutcheson
... stick. That is to say," said Ginger, coldly accurate, "he started laying into him with a stick." He brooded for a moment with knit brows. "A spaniel, mind you! Can you imagine anyone beating a spaniel? It's like hitting a little girl. Well, he's a fairly oldish man, you know, and that hampered me a bit: but I got hold of the stick and broke it into about eleven pieces, and by great good luck it was a stick he happened to value rather highly. It had a gold knob and had been presented to him by his constituents or something. I minced it up a goodish ...
— The Adventures of Sally • P. G. Wodehouse
... be attended to is, your demeanor towards a young wife. As to oldish ones, or widows, time and other things have, in most cases, blunted their feelings, and rendered harsh or stern demeanor in the husband a matter not of heart-breaking consequence. But with a young and inexperienced one, the case is very different; and you should bear in mind, that ...
— Advice to Young Men • William Cobbett
... fast, there. Nice people, too. I always had an eye for real estate, and what I made, I put into that. I had a good horse, and as I drove about I kept my eye on the property and the way the town was growing. One day I noticed that an oldish looking, comfortable sort of house, a little off from the centre of things, was for sale, and it struck me suddenly that there was a pretty good sort of house to own. It had trees around it and nice paths and a neat little ...
— The Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchon • Josephine Daskam Bacon
... "Tired? What! me tired! me!" And he paused, overcome with amazement. "Why, boys, ye must all be ravin distracted! Me tired! Why, I'm as fresh as a cricket; an though rayther oldish, yet I've got more clear muscle, narve, and sinnoo, than all on ye ...
— Among the Brigands • James de Mille
... Ole despondingly. "No, no, Hans, give her up, boy, give her up. It is the advice of an oldish man and a ...
— Chasing the Sun • R.M. Ballantyne
... A stout, oldish woman with rather a pleasant face opened the door; her arms were bare, and she dried her hands on her apron as ...
— Uncle Max • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... my great content: and so to other places, among others, to my tailor's; and then to the belt-maker's, where my belt cost me 55s. of the colour of my new suit; and here understanding that the mistress of the house, an oldish woman in a hat, hath some water good for the eyes, she did dress me, making my eyes smart most horribly, and did give me a little glass of it, which I will use, and hope it will do me good. So to the cutler's, and there ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys
... the outside of the bar suggests that the oldish man will get into trouble. But the bartender says: "No; he will go home all right. But he won't sing all the way there. About the time he gets home he'll realize what money he has spent, and you would not like to be his ...
— Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers • Arthur Brisbane
... ached for you. After that I could not have given you up, and I fell into a sort of belief that it would go on this always. When the lovers began to come, I found I must awake from my delusion. And then I knew that an oldish fellow could love a sweet girl in her first bloom, but that it would be a ...
— A Little Girl in Old Salem • Amanda Minnie Douglas
... confinement in darkness at first. There are many young offenders; the governors say they are horrid plagues, for they are not allowed to flog them, and they are little influenced by darkness and solitary confinement: oldish men much afraid of it. The disease most common in this prison is scrofula; and it is a curious fact that those who work with their arms at the mills are free from it, those who work with their feet at the tread-mills ...
— The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth
... a quick breath, I knocked at the door. "Come in," says a peskish voice. I cum in, and there, sure enough, with nose close down to the desk, a writin' away for dear life, sat CHARLEY. I knowed him to onc't, for all he was a little oldish, and a little grayish, and had a bare spot like a turtle's back on the top of his head. My heart cum' a bustin' up into my throat, and an inward voice seemed ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 25, September 17, 1870 • Various |
