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noun
Sew  n.  Juice; gravy; a seasoned dish; a delicacy. (Obs.) "I will not tell of their strange sewes."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sew" Quotes from Famous Books



... it was like knives! O Delia? I know you've been awfully good to me always, and taken care of me since mamma died and all, but if it is so dreadful to play ball and skate and do things like that, why did you let me in the first place? I hate to sew and do worsted work and be prim, but perhaps, if you had brought me up that way I might have got so I could stand it. Don't you think if you had begun when I was a baby I might have? I don't want to have people hate me—honestly, I don't. ...
— The Governess • Julie M. Lippmann

... assume her duties as housekeeper at Woodburn; Alma was to make her home there while still continuing to sew for the families at Ion and Fairview—an arrangement ...
— Elsie's Kith and Kin • Martha Finley

... the present, my dear; she has had a great shock. Trust to nature. This cannot last long with a girl like Katy. It is half of it over-fatigue, carried on from her school-keeping to add to the present account." To me he said: "Katy, you may sew, if you like, but not in-doors, I will carry your basket out for you into the arbor; and in the afternoon I am going to take you to ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 110, December, 1866 - A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics • Various

... and rather a big screw, loose somewhere in the nursery machinery. For Max was sitting in one corner pretending to read, and Dolly was sitting in another corner—the two furthest-off-from-each-other corners they could possibly find—pretending to sew, and on both little faces the expression was one which mammas are always very sorry ...
— The Thirteen Little Black Pigs - and Other Stories • Mrs. (Mary Louisa) Molesworth

... me and talks about what I was thinking about—how you and that poor darling motherless boy was to get on in foreign abroad, all amongst wild beasts and savages, and no one to make a drop o' gruel if you had colds, or to make your beds, or sew on a button, and your poor stockings all in holes big enough to break any decent woman's heart, ...
— Mass' George - A Boy's Adventures in the Old Savannah • George Manville Fenn

... continued to chatter and sew. One of them might have come out to help this little sister toiling alone, but Annie did not think of that. She raked with the uncomplaining sweetness of an angel until the storm burst. The rain came down in solid drops, and the sky was a ...
— The Copy-Cat and Other Stories • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... learned to sew well. Louisa set up as a doll's dress-maker. She was then twelve years old. She hung out a little sign. She put some pretty dresses in the window to show how ...
— Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans • Edward Eggleston

... "you must make haste, and sew the parts of this body together, and when you have done, I will give you another piece ...
— The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old Favorites • Eva March Tappan

... April, but that morning, after breakfast, she had the window opened, and sat looking out, the feeble sun shining full upon her. She affected to sew, but her eyes never left the street. Between ten and eleven the desired waggon, now unladen, reappeared on its return journey. But Sam was not looking round him then, and ...
— Life's Little Ironies - A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters • Thomas Hardy

... cows all summer; she washes and irons all the clothes for the family, scrubs the floors, and does the most part of the kitchen work. The young one's charge is the children, and some other little turns when the infant is asleep. I teach them to read and to sew when they have any spare time. As for me, I find I have enough to do to superintend. You may be sure I help a little too, now and then. I make and mend what is necessary for the family, for I must be ...
— The Power of Faith - Exemplified In The Life And Writings Of The Late Mrs. Isabella Graham. • Isabella Graham

... with a taking air of candour. "Those evil reports come from our enemies. There's another tribe living in the Great Salt Lake City besides ours; and that's the Gentiles. Gentiles is our name for 'em. It's this set that spreads about uncredible reports, and we'd like to sew their mouths up—" ...
— Verner's Pride • Mrs. Henry Wood

... houses lodged on barges and are drawn by horses walking along the bank of the canal. The trekschuiten are divided into two compartments, first and second class, and when not too crowded, the passengers make themselves quite at home in them; the men smoke, the women knit or sew, while children play upon the small outer deck. Many of the canal boats have white, yellow, or chocolate-colored sails. This last color is caused by a tanning preparation which is put on to preserve them.} constantly ply up and down these roads for the conveyance of passengers; ...
— Hans Brinker - or The Silver Skates • Mary Mapes Dodge

... you," the girl went on. She was now tremendously interested in this beautiful woman whose coming, she believed, meant that she would no longer be Karl's model. "You see, I know all the things that go on here; I look out for the artist's laundry and sew his buttons on; and ...
— The Devil - A Tragedy of the Heart and Conscience • Joseph O'Brien

... after the empty ceremony of tea, Rachel sat in state in the parlour, dignified, self-controlled, pretending to sew, as she had pretended to eat and drink and, afterwards, to have an important enterprise of classifying and rearranging her possessions in the wardrobe upstairs. Let Mrs. Tams enter ever so unexpectedly, Rachel was a fit spectacle for her, with a ...
— The Price of Love • Arnold Bennett

... was told by an astrologer who calculated her nativity that she was born to sit in the "highest state of imperial majesty," and that she had all the eminent stars and planets in her house: this worked such lofty conceit in the lady that "her mother could never make her sew or do any small work, saying her hands were ordained to touch crowns and sceptres, not needles and thimbles." Near Tatbury, and also in the Cotswolds, is the source of the classic river Avon, and north-west of the town is the fine Elizabethan ...
— England, Picturesque and Descriptive - A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel • Joel Cook

... sitting on the veranda embroidering, and this interested Marjorie, for all the girls she knew of her own age liked to run and play better than to sit and sew. ...
— Marjorie's Maytime • Carolyn Wells

... out of the wound. The other ovary is then felt for and drawn out, and excised and secured by a ligature. The wound is then sewed up, and a bandage is placed over the incision. Some farriers do not apply any ligature, but simply sew up the wound, and in the majority of cases the edges adhere, and no harm comes of the operation, except that the general character of the animal is essentially changed. She accumulates a vast quantity of fat, becomes listless and idle, ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... who usually put his idea of the value upon any diamond of size which was brought to him, I considered that 20,000l. was the least which could be put upon the stone. I took the precaution not to carry it loose in my pocket, but to sew it within the lining of my clothes. Glad I was, indeed, when the orders to start the next morning were given out. I found that a horse was appointed for me, and having made up my valise, not forgetting my tattered Bible, I went to my bed, thanking God that this was to ...
— The Privateer's-Man - One hundred Years Ago • Frederick Marryat

... monarch. 'Her Majesty be hanged. Am I not Autocrat of Paflagonia? Have I not blocks, ropes, axes, hangmen—ha? Runs not a river by my palace wall? Have I not sacks to sew up wives withal? Say but the word, that thou wilt be mine own,—your mistress straightway in a sack is sewn, and thou the sharer of ...
— The Rose and the Ring • William Makepeace Thackeray

... Peace, you know better. You know you never sew a stitch but you lie awake half the night after it ...
— Gypsy's Cousin Joy • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

... circumference, and the names of the continents, oceans, seas, gulfs, etc. etc. together with the general description of the inhabitants of each part, as to colour, etc. Of the girls, fourteen had been taught to sew, and have made upwards of fifty garments for themselves, besides ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre

... "I jest couldn't stay away. Why, I've made things fer Miriam Standish ever since she was born. That is how I learned ter sew ...
— Bunch Grass - A Chronicle of Life on a Cattle Ranch • Horace Annesley Vachell

... long time ago on a farm in North Carolina. She knew how to clean up the house, to wash the dishes, to sew, and to cook. She knew how to knit, and ...
— The Child's World - Third Reader • Hetty Browne, Sarah Withers, W.K. Tate

... who go about to sew a cloak of fig leaves, to hide their conformity with Papists, and to find out some difference betwixt the English ceremonies and those of the Papists; so say some, that by the sign of the cross they are not ranked with Papists, because ...
— The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Gillespie

... finished that other apron, you shall sew no more to-day. You can pump a fresh bucket of water, and then run out into the yard ...
— Beulah • Augusta J. Evans

... always he journeyed in secret; and he could not find what he wanted. Tailor Club Foot came to sit on his table to sew together garments for him and his two sons. The tailor said: "Farm very pretty is Rhydwen. Farm splendid ...
— My Neighbors - Stories of the Welsh People • Caradoc Evans

... got two or three that I don't wear any more, and never shall, I guess" (this last spoken sadly); "s'pose you take one of 'em—they're in that square box under the table—and see if you can't sew it on the jacket, and make it look like what the other boys wear? Now, you try what you can do, just to see what Tip ...
— Tip Lewis and His Lamp • Pansy (aka Isabella Alden)

... answered the man, 'that is not my sort of tailoring; come with me, and you will learn quite another kind of craft from that.' Not knowing what better to do, he came into the plan, and learnt tailoring from the beginning; and when he left his master, he gave him a needle, and said, 'You can sew anything with this, be it as soft as an egg or as hard as steel; and the joint will be so fine that ...
— Grimms' Fairy Tales • The Brothers Grimm

... improved the opportunity to inspect any strange craft that visited the bay. "But, John, we must be off early on Monday morning, and the jib of the Blowout, as you call her, wants mending. We will go down and sew it up." ...
— Little By Little - or, The Cruise of the Flyaway • William Taylor Adams

... buckle and can be let down. All been dye with indigo. Have weave shirt—dye with blue indigo boil with myrtle seed. Myrtle seed must-a-did put the color in. Old brogan shoe on he foot. Old beaver hat on he head. Top of crown wear out and I member he have paste-board cover over with cloth and sew in he hat crown. My Grandmother wear these here ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves • Works Projects Administration

... "list" means to border or edge; at others, to sew together, so as to make a variegated display, or to form a border. Probably it here means the curling of the bottom ...
— The Journal to Stella • Jonathan Swift

... you may walk in the garden and gather pinks. You can go round the garden and look at the fountains, or into the grove, but not outside the wall, or you will have Miss Magin tagging after you, to see that nothing happens to you. After dinner, you will have to practise and sew, and in the evening play backgammon with mother, or talk to the visitors ...
— The Magician's Show Box and Other Stories • Lydia Maria Child

... of air, which he has made your portion. Over and above, you sow not, neither do you reap; but God feeds you, and gives you streams and springs for your thirst; the mountains He gives you, and the valleys for your refuge, and the tall trees wherein to build your nests. And because you cannot sew or spin, God takes thought to clothe you, you and your little ones. It must be, then, that your Creator loves you much, since He has granted you so many benefits. Be on your guard then against the sin of ingratitude, and strive always ...
— A Child's Book of Saints • William Canton

... father, an ye think it fit, We'll send him a year to the college yet, We'll sew a green ribbon round about his hat, And that will let them ken he's ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... too late, yet," said Clementine, not quite understanding why Patty was so serious about it; "here, help me sew these." ...
— Patty's Success • Carolyn Wells

... I see, I with my head low, working out my shame, Eyes burning dry and my heart like a flame; For I hate you then—I hate you, Jim of Tellico, And grip my needle tighter, every stitch a sin, The hate growing bigger till the thing I sew Seems a shroud I'm glad a-making just to ...
— Path Flower and Other Verses • Olive T. Dargan

... true," interrupted Mrs. Milward impatiently, "but she has no way of getting about. Krauss takes the car and is away in it all day. I gather that he has the strict German idea about a girl's being brought up to cook, to sew, to slave, to find all her interests in her home! In fact, he told me so plainly; he also added that he had paid for Sophy's passage and implied that he intended to have the worth of his money—his pound ...
— The Road to Mandalay - A Tale of Burma • B. M. Croker

... at all strong, and had few girl friends, Katie did not play rough or noisy games, but her love for her dolls made her quite a little mother to them. She treated them almost like real children, and would sew and toil, and never rest till she felt she had in every way done her duty to them. She loved animals, too, especially dogs and horses, and could not bear to see any one ill-treat them. Oh, how she suffered ...
— Catherine Booth - A Sketch • Colonel Mildred Duff

... wrong, Some too short and some too long, Some too loose and some too tight; Grimy smudges on the white, And a tiny spot of red, Where poor Polly's finger bled. Strange such pretty, dainty blocks— Bits of Polly's summer frocks— Should have proved so hard to sew, And the cause ...
— The Jingle Book • Carolyn Wells

... ruined tradesman, had concentrated all her affection, while she treated her deformed child with contempt and unkindness. The latter would often come, weeping, to Frances, on this account, who tried to console her, and in the long evenings amused her by teaching her to read and sew. Accustomed to pity her by their mother's example, instead of imitating other children, who always taunted and sometimes even beat her, Agricola and Gabriel liked her, and used to protect and ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... powdered shell of red pepper are macerated in eight ounces of strong alcohol for several days, then strained. With this tincture the furs or cloths are sprinkled over, and rolled up in sheets. 6. Carefully shake and brush woolens early in the spring, so as to be certain that no eggs are in them; then sew them up in cotton or linen wrappers, putting a piece of camphor gum, tied up in a bit of muslin, into each bundle, or into the chests and closets where the articles are to lie. No moth will approach while the smell of the camphor continues. When ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs

... stroking and cuddling him. "Come along and we'll take babykins upstairs and sew her all up as good as new and forget ...
— The Fate of Felix Brand • Florence Finch Kelly

... H. P. motor. At the time tests were made there were but twenty operators at work, leaving ten idle machines, the entire shafting, however, being in operation. The class of goods manufactured in this shop is a cheap grade of cotton and wool pants, rather heavy goods to sew. A volt meter across the terminals of the motor gave the following readings with the current at 9 amperes: Minimum 90 volts, maximum 148 volts, average 119, which gives us a minimum average per operator of 4.5 volts and a maximum average ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888 • Various

... to inquiry from many who wish to sew, while also studying the missions and contributing to the support of teachers, we give below a list of standard needs in all our mission ...
— American Missionary, Volume 43, No. 3, March, 1889 • Various

... woman? To hold on her knees Both darlings! to feel all their arms round her throat Cling, strangle a little! to sew by degrees, And 'broider the long-clothes and neat little coat; To dream and ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 6 • Various

... be. None of us are, Tom. I wonder at you more than I do at Dan, for you have had more advantages. As for me, I am only a girl; there's nothing for girls but to sit and sew, and prepare meals for men to eat, and wait until some one comes and chooses to marry them. Then they go off and do the same thing some ...
— The Inn at the Red Oak • Latta Griswold

... rode, did ride. seen, beheld. road, a way; route. scene, a view. rowed, did row. seine, a net for fishing. room, an apartment. slay, to kill. rheum, a serous fluid. sleigh, a vehicle on runners. sow, to scatter seed. sley, a weaver's reed. sew (so), to use a needle. seem, to appear. so, thus; in like manner. seam, ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey

... eyes of her family as she might have been. She and her mamma were on a visit to her grandma's, in the country. As she had been there a week, the excitement attendant on her arrival had so far subsided that grandma was beginning to turn her attention to cheese-making, her two aunties to sew vigorously on their new cambric dresses, and grandpa and the big hired man to become so engaged in the "haying" that they scarcely ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, September 1878, No. 11 • Various

... what's to be done, and most help is no help to me. I want people to stand out of my way and let me get done. I've tried keeping a girl once or twice, and I never worked so hard in my life. When Mary and I do all ourselves, we can calculate everything to a minute; and we get our time to sew and read and spin and visit, and live just as we ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, Issue 15, January, 1859 • Various

... dat de Yankee sojers wuz on de way, Marse Spence en his sons wuz 'way at de war. Miss Betsey tole my pappy ter take en hide de hosses down in de swamp. My mammy help Miss Betsey sew up de silver in de cotton bed ticks. Dem Yankee sojers nebber did find our ...
— Slave Narratives, Administrative Files (A Folk History of - Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves) • Works Projects Administration

... said to myself (feeling beforehand a certainty that I should be dreadfully jealous), "That is the sort of husband to suit me. He will always be with me. We shall spend our days together; he at his picture or sculpture, while I read or sew beside him, in the concentrated light of the studio." Poor dear innocent! I had not the faintest idea then what a studio really was, nor of the singular creatures one meets there. Never, in gazing at those statues of bold undressed goddesses had the idea occurred to me that there ...
— Artists' Wives • Alphonse Daudet

... drivel to their hearts' content. But if your wishes were realized, your profit would be great! Let Plutus recover his sight and divide his favours out equally to all, and none will ply either trade or art any longer; all toil would be done away with. Who would wish to hammer iron, build ships, sew, turn, cut up leather, bake bricks, bleach linen, tan hides, or break up the soil of the earth with the plough and garner the gifts of Demeter, if he could live in idleness and free ...
— The Eleven Comedies - Vol. I • Aristophanes et al

... no interest in the proposed expedition, and spoke as if it was an affair in which I should be very sorry to be engaged. I got, in consequence, considerably sneered at: Miss Susan, especially, amused himself at my expense, and told me that I had better go back to my sisters, and help them to sew and nurse babies, if I was afraid of fighting. I bore all that was said with wonderful equanimity, hoping that the next morning would show I was a greater hero ...
— Marmaduke Merry - A Tale of Naval Adventures in Bygone Days • William H. G. Kingston

... see, I remove all the bones, carefully that the skin may be damaged as little as possible. The skull is the most difficult, but it can be removed by a skilful artist. You see, I have made but a single opening. This I now sew up, and that done, the body is hung so," and he fastened a piece of rope to the hair of the corpse and swung the horrid thing to a ring in the ceiling. Directly below it was a circular manhole in ...
— The Chessmen of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... seven feet, or more, of balloon silk, water-proof cloth, or even heavy unbleached sheeting, will be found most useful in camp. Sew strong tape strings at the four corners and at intervals along the sides for tying to shelters, etc. The water-proof cloth will serve as a drop-curtain in front of the lean-to during a hard storm, or as carpet cloth over ground of shelter, ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard

... custom here, agreeably to which, a husband never assigns his wife so much for pin-money, but, according to his means, makes her a present of one or more male or female slaves, whom she can dispose of as she chooses. She generally has them taught how to cook, sew, embroider, or even instructed in some trade, and then lets them out, by the day, week, or month, {27} to people who possess no slaves of their own; or she lets them take in washing at home, or employs them in the manufacture of various ornamental objects, fine pastry, etc, which she ...
— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer

... heart, neighbor. I have an idea in my head which I think will help us all, if I can carry it out," she said, cheerily, as she went, leaving Mrs. Pecq to sew on Jack's new night-gowns, with swift fingers, and the grateful wish that she might work for these good ...
— Jack and Jill • Louisa May Alcott

... For she had learned to sew—Aunt Mary had insisted upon that, as well as French. She laid her hand upon ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... was a king who had twelve sons. When they were grown big, he told them they must go out into the world and win themselves wives, but these wives must be able to spin, and weave, and sew a shirt in one day. If they could not, he would ...
— Tell Me Another Story - The Book of Story Programs • Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

... people she had known had moved away to the cities or the cemeteries, and new people had taken their place. She had not known many of the better people. Her mother had been too humble to sew for them. ...
— The Cup of Fury - A Novel of Cities and Shipyards • Rupert Hughes

... got anything to do with getting married," she said again, and her voice was tense with feeling. "I can work and keep house, and sew and bake; but no man would ever fancy me' why should he? A man wants his wife to be pretty and smart and ...
— The Second Chance • Nellie L. McClung

... life had I felt Hal so near to me. His manner toward me had changed, of course, as he grew into manhood, and "Emily, will you sew on this button?" or "Emily, are my stockings ready?" were given in place of "Emily did it," but now, as he looked full in my face, and even passed his arm about me with true brotherly affection, he seemed so near, that ...
— The Harvest of Years • Martha Lewis Beckwith Ewell

... mused—babies, children. It had been her passion. Had she realized it... He sighed, and, struck by a fresh thought, looked to her favorite seat with certitude that he would not see the customary sewing lying on it in a pretty heap. She did not sew these days. ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London

... 'ud be cheap at a hundred, lass; unless there's a whole crowd on ye as can teach everything. Can you sew?" ...
— Helen with the High Hand (2nd ed.) • Arnold Bennett

... Oh—I don't know. I don't know as she was nervous. I sometimes sew awful queer when I'm just tired. (MRS HALE starts to say something, looks at MRS PETERS, then goes on sewing) Well I must get these things wrapped up. They may be through sooner than we think, (putting apron ...
— Plays • Susan Glaspell

... it!" cried the penitent amateur. "Look what I've done, Yed. I'll have to rub in some of that stuff of yours and sew on a bandage. The files will kill the poor thing if we leave the cut bare ...
— The Half-Hearted • John Buchan

... member, whence the sawdust blood had issued through a deep incision in the cloth, Donald replied seriously, "It will require a rather serious operation, but I guess that I can mend it with the assistance of Nurse Smiles. We will have to sew up the wound and put the leg ...
— 'Smiles' - A Rose of the Cumberlands • Eliot H. Robinson

... it is thought very bad style to have wives and women. They have them, just as we have Voltaire and Rousseau; but who ever opens his Voltaire or his Rousseau? Nobody. But, for all that, the highest style is to be jealous. They sew a woman up in a sack and fling her into the water on the slightest ...
— A Start in Life • Honore de Balzac

... have to sit there all day, he explained to the doctor, but they were getting along. Mrs. Mulhaus had got a job of cleaning that day; that would be fifty cents. Ally—she was twelve—was learning to sew. That was her afternoon to go to the College Settlement. Jimmy, fourteen, had got a place in a store, and earned two dollars ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... views little girls were to be taught to move very gently, to speak softly and prettily, to say 'yes ma'am,' and 'no ma'am,' never to tear their clothes, to sew, to knit at regular hours, to go to church on Sunday and make all the responses, and to come home and ...
— The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe • Charles Edward Stowe

... your noble ladyship. May your ladyship's goodness sew up the hole which is in the pocket where I carry my character, and which has caused me to lose it so frequent. It's a bad place for men to keep their characters in; but such is the fashion. And so hurray ...
— An Unsocial Socialist • George Bernard Shaw

... themselves in a corner of the room, behind some clothes which were hanging up there, and watched. When it was midnight, two pretty little naked men came, sat down by the shoemaker's table, took all the work which was cut out before them and began to stitch, and sew, and hammer so skilfully and so quickly with their little fingers that the shoemaker could not turn away his eyes for astonishment. They did not stop until all was done, and stood finished on the table, ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... Lucy," said she, "if that is all, you can soon sew up their stockings. You don't depend on them, anyways: you are a ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade

... practice of great antiquity. The Scythians used to hang the scalps of their enemies to the harness of their horses; and he was deemed the most distinguished warrior whose equipage was most plentifully decorated with these ornaments. Some were accustomed to sew numbers of scalps together, so as to form a cloak, in which they arrayed themselves. It was also usual for the warriors of this nation to tear off the skin from the right hands of their slain enemies, and to preserve it with the nails attached; and sometimes they flayed the ...
— John Rutherford, the White Chief • George Lillie Craik

... One of their daughters was Mrs. Mattie Long, another Mrs. Willie Bowens. There were others. They were all fine to my mother. She married in Dr. Porter's home. Mrs. Porter had learnt her to sew. My father was a mechanic. My mother sewed for both black and white. She was a fine dressmaker. She had eight children and raised six of us ...
— Slave Narratives: Arkansas Narratives - Arkansas Narratives, Part 6 • Works Projects Administration

... door. "It's you," she said. "I can't get up. Forgive me Not answering your knock. I can no more Let people in than I can keep them out. I'm getting too old for my size, I tell them. My fingers are about all I've the use of So's to take any comfort. I can sew: I help out with this beadwork what I can." "That's a smart pair of pumps you're beading there. Who are they for?" "You mean?—oh, for some miss. I can't keep track of other people's daughters. Lord, if I were to dream of everyone Whose shoes I primped ...
— North of Boston • Robert Frost

... and Miss Lucy fell into the habit of coming early in the morning to ride with me, and after dinner to sit and sew, and after tea for a walk. She showed me all her heart, apparently, though there was not much of it, and vowed that she scarcely knew how she should exist without me. I let her play at liking me, just as I should have indulged a playful ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 5, No. 28, February, 1860 • Various

... past years is to me a sealed book. I cannot remember a person I knew or associated with, yet things outside of my personal life seem to have clung to me. I remembered books I must have read; I can write, sing and sew—I sew remarkably well, and must have once been trained to it. I know all about my country's history, yet I cannot recollect where I lived, and this part of the country is unknown to me. When I came to Elmhurst I knew all about it and about Mr. Forbes, but could not connect ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work • Edith Van Dyne

... you haven't worried!" she cried, running to him; "Mrs. Gray broke her glasses and couldn't read or sew, and I thought I ought to have them mended for her,—it wasn't far you know—and then it began to rain ...
— The Spectacle Man - A Story of the Missing Bridge • Mary F. Leonard

... to the back, and then begin Another row up the front; Sew to the top, 'twill be no sin, But the ...
— How to Make a Shoe • Jno. P. Headley

... alacrity and fetched a mass of white from the closet. "Here," she said, "if you want to sew the lace on this nightgown. I was going to put her to it, but she'll be glad enough to get rid of it. She ought to have this and one more before she goes. I don't like to send her ...
— The Wind in the Rose-bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural • Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

... among themselves, and slash about with their long heavy knives, inflicting ugly gashes and often maiming each other for life. One-armed men are not uncommon; and I knew of two cases where an arm was chopped off in these encounters. Nearly every pay-week our medical officer was sent for to sew up the wounds that had been received. Fortunately even at these times they do not interfere with foreigners, their quarrels being amongst themselves, and either faction fights or about their women, or gambling losses. Many ...
— The Naturalist in Nicaragua • Thomas Belt

... intended to give you a concise history of my elysian life. Soon after we returned, my dear lord began to write in earnest; and then commenced my leisure, because, till we meet at dinner, I do not see him. I have had to sew, as I did not touch a needle all summer, and far into the autumn, Mr. Hawthorne not letting me have a needle or a pen in my hand. We were interrupted by no one, except a short call now and then from Elizabeth Hoar, who can hardly be called an earthly inhabitant; and ...
— Memories of Hawthorne • Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

... that vault. Indeed, had it not been for Thomas Bolle, who has the strength of a bull, I could never have done it. Moreover, the Abbot has been there before us and dug over every inch of the floor. But the fool never thought of the wall, so all's well. I'll sew half of them into my petticoat and half into yours, to share the risk. In case of thieves, the money that hungry Visitor has left to us, for I paid him over half when you signed the deeds, we will carry openly in pouches upon our girdles. They'll not ...
— The Lady Of Blossholme • H. Rider Haggard

... sailor. 'I have an old pair in my trunk; let me go for them. You, madame, will cut them up, and I shall sew them over again to the best of my power; every thing on board ship shall be turned to account; this is not the place for being too nice or particular; we have our most important wants gratified when we have ...
— Hortense, Makers of History Series • John S. C. Abbott

... Common, or go to the movies, if we had the dime to blow in, or just stay in our room. Well, our room wasn't very pleasant. It was hot in summer, and cold in winter, and the gas-jet was so measly and so flickery that we couldn't sew or read, even if we hadn't been too fagged out to do either—which we 'most generally was. Besides, over our heads was a squeaky board that some one was always rockin' on, and under us was a feller that was learnin' ...
— Pollyanna Grows Up • Eleanor H. Porter

... rain kept them from working, learned to cook and sew and take care of babies; and even the little girls learned a heap and made pretties they could keep, besides. From the bottom of their clothes-box, Cissy brought a paper-wrapped scrapbook of Bible pictures she had cut and pasted. ...
— Across the Fruited Plain • Florence Crannell Means

... the castle of Blois when this happened, and also had thirty years' experience in such things, died immediately, after giving her son warning that the merit is not in the way you cut the thread, but in the way you sew it. He thought that he was safe at last, and the applause of Europe followed him on his march against the capital. He had shown so much weakness of will, such want of clearness and resource, that nobody believed he had it in him. In the eyes of Parisians he was guilty ...
— Lectures on Modern history • Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

... them. They just bored me. They are extremely religious. We had prayers night and morning, and a prayer before and after every meal. They read only very good books, and the Honorable Misses Stanhope sew for the poor old women and teach the poor young ones. They work harder than anyone I ever knew, and they call it 'improving the time.' They thought me a very silly, reckless young woman, and I think they all prayed for me. One night after they had sung ...
— The Man Between • Amelia E. Barr

... I am to go through a regular course of it when I get to be seventeen or eighteen. But I knew Kezia's cakes were much better than any I could make, so I thanked her, but said no—I would rather read or sew. ...
— My New Home • Mary Louisa Molesworth

... and cruel. The cruelty was evident to him as she bit in two the thread for the waistcoat she was mending, and then plied her needle again. Also the needle in her fingers might have been intended to sew up his shroud, so angry did it appear at the moment. But her teeth had something almost savage about them. If he had seen them when she was smiling, he would have thought them merely beautiful and rare, atoning for her plain face and flat breast—not so ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... in the mud till the day of judgment. Heaven knows how they paid the turnpikes they pushed them through! But these were none of your simple Susans, that think their eyes are good for nothing but to look at their husbands, or their fingers but to sew baby-clothes. Depend on it, you must give up your matrimony, or your views of preferment. If you wilfully tie a clog round your throat, never think of running a race; but do not suppose that your breaking off with the lass will make any very terrible catastrophe. A scene there may ...
— The Surgeon's Daughter • Sir Walter Scott

... mother sewed," Burr went on, "she used a little bone to push the thread through the skins. One day she found a little bone with a hole in it and took it home. She put her thread through the hole, wondering how it would do, and began to sew. Soon there was a crowd of women round her, pointing and saying, 'Oh, oh!' while the little ...
— The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone • Margaret A. McIntyre

... Mrs. Brown—fat, good-natured and adoring—was all acquiescence, and by the time Norah was eleven she knew more of cooking and general housekeeping than many girls grown up and fancying themselves ready to undertake houses of their own. Moreover, she could sew rather well, though she frankly detested the accomplishment. The one form of work she cared for was knitting, and it was her boast that her father wore only the socks she manufactured ...
— A Little Bush Maid • Mary Grant Bruce

... so that he did not know his child; or he would not bend from his stern resolution to disown her. On these two occasions she was unable, on returning, to resume her work. Her fingers could not hold or guide the needle; nor could she, from the blinding tears that; filled her eyes have seen to sew, even if her hands had lost the tremor that ran through every nerve ...
— The Lights and Shadows of Real Life • T.S. Arthur

... end of every month Ralph's money ran out, and then he was petulant and often upbraided her. Those were the only times when he essayed to study, and he would not walk with her of evenings, so destitute. Then Fanchette amused her: "Sew in my room," she would say; "Ralph will come for you at eight o'clock." But Ralph never went, and Fanchette poisoned his little ...
— Bohemian Days - Three American Tales • Geo. Alfred Townsend

... were put out, Dr. White was asked to tie the Medium, and Mrs. Lippincott to sew the ends of the ribbon and tape ...
— Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University • The Seybert Commission

... its inward structure; in short, it makes us regard its matter as indifferent to its form. The whole of matter is made to appear to our thought as an immense piece of cloth in which we can cut out what we will and sew it together again as we please. Let us note, in passing, that it is this power that we affirm when we say that there is a space, that is to say, a homogeneous and empty medium, infinite and infinitely divisible, lending itself indifferently to any mode of decomposition ...
— Creative Evolution • Henri Bergson

... (yet the poorest think themselves too good to Marry with the best Spaniard), which endeared him to them exceedingly. Otherwise it is death for any Stranger to visit these Caves and Bodies. The Corps are sew'd up in Goatskins with Thongs of the same, with very great curiosity, particularly in the incomparable exactness and evenness of the Seams; and the skins are made close and fit to the Corps, which for the most part are entire, the Eyes clos'd, ...
— To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I • Richard F. Burton

... opening over the fireplace, roused The Stone to her day's work. She lost no time in setting a task for her little slave. Handing her a needle carved from the bone of a deer and thread made of a deer's sinew, she hade her sew up a rent in the skin curtain of ...
— Timid Hare • Mary Hazelton Wade

... want you to work out a building scheme for the school," Jim went on. "We want a place where the girls can learn to cook, keep house, take care of babies, sew and learn to be wives and mothers. We want a place in which Mrs. Hansen can come to show them how to cure meat—she's the best hand at that in the county—where Mrs. Bonner can teach them to make bread and pastry—she ought to be given a doctor's degree ...
— The Brown Mouse • Herbert Quick

... her shoes to steal anything, I hope; but I can do housework, sweep, make beds, sew, and make myself useful,—as I will show, if I can ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 21, July, 1859 • Various

... which they use to colour their bodies, bows, arrows, and canoes. The canoes are built in shape like wherries on the river Thames, but that they are much longer, made with the rinds of birch trees, which they sew very artificially and close together, and overlay every seam with turpentine. In like manner they sew the rinds of birch trees round and deep in proportion like a brass kettle, to boil their meat in; which hath been proved to me by three mariners of a ship riding at ...
— Lecture On The Aborigines Of Newfoundland • Joseph Noad

... nine and one-half hours each, say 40 yards of cotton in 10 hours. Admitting that a family needs 200 yards a year at most, this would be equivalent to 50 hours' work, say 10 half-days of 5 hours each. And we should have thread besides; that is to say, cotton to sew with, and thread to weave cloth with, so as to manufacture woolen ...
— The Conquest of Bread • Peter Kropotkin

... bigger, I'll hunt. I'll be able also to cut firewood to sell or to present to the owner of the cows, and so he'll be satisfied with us. When I'm able to plow, I'll ask him to let me have a piece of land to plant in sugar-cane or corn and you won't have to sew until midnight. We'll have new clothes for every fiesta, we'll eat meat and big fish, we'll live free, seeing each other every day and eating together. Old Tasio says that Crispin has a good head and so we'll send him to Manila to study. I'll support him by working hard. Isn't that ...
— The Social Cancer - A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere • Jose Rizal

... the poem had been read she jumped up and cried, "Look at the Devil's needles. They're come to sew my eyes ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... with his cigar, and watched the serene oncoming of the night, because he loved to do this. His wife stayed with him to be company, when, without an old-fashioned ideal of married life, her natural bent would have urged her indoors, where the lamps were, to read or sew or even play patience. But she lingered contentedly and all seemed to her as it should be, with the two of them sitting near each other in their garden chairs before the family door-stone, he smoking, she getting the benefit of it by now and then fanning his smoke ...
— Aurora the Magnificent • Gertrude Hall

... interior of their cottage, during the long winter evenings, is given, which shows how the mother by her gentle influence may become the means of sowing seed, which shall spring up in after years bearing fruit a hundred-fold. The lads were gathered by the fireside learning to knit and sew, and while so engaged their mother, who took great interest in the missionary enterprises then carried on, read aloud, in such publications as she could obtain, the descriptions given of the work and sufferings of the pioneer labourers in heathen lands, ...
— Robert Moffat - The Missionary Hero of Kuruman • David J. Deane

... experiments. He had secretly rather admired her quick tongue and her daring, he liked her to ride his horses, and was amazed at the speed with which she grasped the controlling principles of the motor-car. He had seen her move plants, treat sick chickens, sew up the gashed head of a horse with her own fingers, while Cherry, lovely, round-eyed, immaculate in white ruffles, watched her ...
— Sisters • Kathleen Norris

... philosophy from Antinomianism; my mother, whitest, mildest, most conservative of ladies, whose only exception to her universal preference for old things is her son; my boy, a piece of love and sunshine, well worth my watching from morning to night;—these, and three domestic women, who cook, and sew and run for us, make all my household. Here I sit and read and write, with very little system, and, as far as regards composition, with the most fragmentary result: paragraphs incompressible, each sentence ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... refractory hems, or punctuated by requests or signals for scissors, thread, and bits of gingham; and do not spoil garments by working with divided attention. Give each its hour or its day. Best of all, when a box is in preparation, sew early, late, and often, till it is despatched. Then resume the studies, being especially careful to have their first resumption provided with an attractive programme. In all cases when studies have been grafted upon sewing, encourage the graft. It ...
— The American Missionary, Vol. 43, No. 8, August, 1889 • Various

... intentions were far from warlike, he could not bring himself, in view of his secret plans, to part with his only weapon. He examined his extra pair of khaki trousers, and discovering a considerable surplus of cloth at each inside seam, he took needle and thread and managed to sew the gun in so that it hung close against the inside of his right leg when he donned the garment. It felt queer and uncomfortable, but it did not appear to be noticeable so long as he stood upright. With some pride in his stratagem, ...
— Rainbow's End • Rex Beach

... brought some there. She was sewing running leather to put into the shoes of human beings, so that they should never be at rest. She embroidered lies, and worked up into mischief and discord thoughtless words, that would otherwise have fallen to the ground. Yes, she knew how to sew and embroider, and transfer with a vengeance, that ...
— The Sand-Hills of Jutland • Hans Christian Andersen

... be found, patches are easily found," said Petrovitch, "but there's nothing to sew them to. The thing is completely rotten; if you put a needle to it—see, it ...
— Taras Bulba and Other Tales • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

... Madrid, and although they grumble, the flies crowd to see the giants and the big bell, then I have to hurry with the tickets; one day, Gabriel, I took eighty duros. I remember it was at the last 'Corpus'; Mariquita had to sew up the pockets of my cassock, for they tore with the weight of so many pesetas; it was a blessing from ...
— The Shadow of the Cathedral • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... "Sew a bag of canvas, leather, or hide, of such bigness as to admit the butt of the gun pretty freely. The straps that support it buckle through a ring in the pommel, and the thongs by which its slope is adjusted fasten round the girth below. The exact adjustments may not be hit upon by an unpracticed ...
— The Prairie Traveler - A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions • Randolph Marcy

... to sew to spin the heel the spectacles the cassock to forget my window looks out on to the courtyard he was walking with long strides ...
— Le Petit Chose (part 1) - Histoire d'un Enfant • Alphonse Daudet

... too, let them learn to know Of household duties, and to sew; For oft a button, oft a rip, By sewing they may save a "fip." Yes, let them know that "woman's work" With many a turn and many a quirk, Is not "a play with straws," as some. Would seem ...
— Mother Truth's Melodies - Common Sense For Children • Mrs. E. P. Miller

... servant maid, Thy jeers at me why dost thou throw? Thou needst not fear or blame or sneer From me, however thou may'st sew. ...
— Hafbur and Signe - a ballad • Thomas J. Wise

... Hagen: / "Upon his tunic sew Thou a little token. / Thereby shall I know Where I may protect him / when in the fight we strain." She weened to save the hero, / yet wrought she ...
— The Nibelungenlied - Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original • trans. by George Henry Needler

... traders, they possessed a wonderful skill in dressing the skins of the buffalo, the bear and the beaver. Beaver and raccoon skin blankets were made "pliant, warm and durable." Says Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary, "They sew together as many of these skins as are necessary, carefully setting the hair or fur all the same way, so that the blanket or covering be smooth, and the rain do ...
— The Land of the Miamis • Elmore Barce

... Eleanore, and began to sew; she was silent. In the meanwhile, little Agnes, tottering about on the floor, fell and began to cry in a most pitiable fashion. Eleanore hastened over and picked the child up. Just then she heard a sound as if cloth were being torn. She looked around, and saw that the veil had an ugly rip in ...
— The Goose Man • Jacob Wassermann

... wash the wily coureur de bois, but leave the heads on in cleaning them. Stuff the bodies with a forcemeat of fat, salt pork, minced onions, and fine bread crumbs well seasoned with salt and pepper. Sew them up with fine thread and lay upon thin slices of pork, covering the grating of the roaster. Lay other slices of pork over them, pour over all a cupful of stock, and roast one hour. Remove the pork, then wash with butter and dredge with ...
— The Dude Wrangler • Caroline Lockhart

... naked men, who sat down at the shoemaker's table, took up the cut-out work, and began with their tiny fingers to stitch, sew, and hammer so neatly and quickly, that the shoemaker could not believe his eyes. They did not stop till everything was quite finished, and stood complete on the table; then they ran ...
— Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories - The Young Folks Treasury, Volume 1 • Various

... indolent beggar and bold enough, Fain would I learn both to knit and to sew; I've two little brothers at home, when they're old enough, They will work hard for the gifts you bestow; Pity, kind gentlemen, friends of humanity. Cold blows the wind, and the night's coming on; Give me some food for my mother in charity, Give ...
— The Anti-Slavery Harp • Various

... the orchard," proposed Fanny. "Somebody else can work on these silly old hearts, if they want to. My needle sticks so I can't sew, anyway." ...
— An Alabaster Box • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Florence Morse Kingsley

... eager to go. Why not go, Abbot? There will be no more fighting for months now; McClellan has let them slip. You could have a fortnight in Boston as well as not, and wear your captain's bars for the first time. I fancy I know how proud Miss Winthrop would be to sew them on ...
— A War-Time Wooing - A Story • Charles King

... Hagen of Troneg: "Sew a small mark upon his coat, whereby I may know where I must guard him, when we ...
— The Nibelungenlied • Unknown

... then he said, "Look here, Peter. Let us cut a piece off the sail about five feet long, and say three feet wide, double it longways, and sew up the ends so as to make a bag; we can unravel some string, and make holes with our knives. Then we can sink it down two or three feet, and watch it; and when we see that some little fish have got in it, we can draw it up very gently, and, by raising it gradually from ...
— The Young Buglers • G.A. Henty

... he interrupted. "You will have to get the roots of the white spruce, and sew with that, as a cobbler sews, using a ...
— A Mating in the Wilds • Ottwell Binns

... casket, then open in a Schollers studie." Yet after dinner, "Euphues" will still be agreeable to the ladies, adds Lyly, always smiling; if they desire to slumber, it will bring them to sleep which will be far better than beginning to sew and pricking their fingers when they ...
— The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare • J. J. Jusserand

... do things," the kid said; "because girls know how to sew and cook, I have to admit that. ...
— Roy Blakeley's Bee-line Hike • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... instrument of commerce of any kind. Their commerce was carried on by barter. A sort of wooden spade was their principal instrument of agriculture. Sharp stones served them for knives and hatchets to cut with; fish bones, and the hard sinews of certain animals, served them with needles to sew with; and these seem to have been their principal instruments of trade. In this state of things, it seems impossible that either of those empires could have been so much improved or so well cultivated as at present, when they are plentifully furnished with all sorts ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... stocking knitting, and the like, are arts which have never been practised in the Indian tribes generally. After the revolutionary war, I learned to sew, so that I could make my own clothing after a poor fashion; but the other domestic arts I have been wholly ignorant of the application of, since my captivity. In the season of hunting, it was our business, ...
— A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison • James E. Seaver

... in and out of the house, laughing, begging the daughter to sew on a button, sell them an egg, boys of nineteen and twenty, fair, tall, ...
— The Happy Foreigner • Enid Bagnold

... Alexandria. It could not be said that Labakan was unhandy with the needle; on the contrary, he could make excellent work: moreover, one would have done him injustice to have called him lazy. Nevertheless, his companions knew not what to make of him, for he would often sew for hours together so rapidly that the needle would glow in his hand, and the thread smoke, and that none could equal him. At another time, however, (and this, alas! happened more frequently,) he would sit in deep meditation, looking with his staring eyes straight ...
— The Oriental Story Book - A Collection of Tales • Wilhelm Hauff

... following force-meat: half a pint of fine bread-crumbs, an ounce and a half of butter, a small boiled onion chopped, and a dozen oysters cut into small pieces; a saltspoonful of salt, a pinch of pepper; bind together with an egg, sew up the fowl, and truss for roasting. Make a nice batter, as for fine fritters, and when the fowl has been in the oven half an hour, pour part of the batter over it; when dry and beginning to brown, pour more, until it is thickly coated and a nice brown; baste often; cut up the chicken, and serve ...
— Choice Cookery • Catherine Owen

... Machine! No visions of gloom and despair Float over my mind serene, As I thy performance compare To the old-fashioned stitch, The dread sorrows which Accompanied work by the fingers Of those forced to sew 'Midst a life full of woe. With pity my soul ...
— The Emigrant Mechanic and Other Tales In Verse - Together With Numerous Songs Upon Canadian Subjects • Thomas Cowherd

... horse's vein, draw blood, and drink it.... In victory they leave neither small nor great alive; they cut up women great with child and cleave the fruit of the womb. If they come to a great river, as they know nothing of boats, they sew skins together, stitch up all their goods therein, tie the bundle to their horses' tails, mount with a hard grip of the mane, and so swim over." This passage is an absolute abridgment of many chapters of Carpini. Still more terse ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... meerschaum—the 'squelcher' Jinny called it, because of its noise—and mooned about the room, making remarks on literature or politics, while Mother picked a work-basket cleverly from a dangerously overloaded shelf, and prepared to mend and sew. The windows were wide open, and framed the picture of snowy Alps, now turning many-tinted in the slanting sunshine. (Riquette, gorged with milk, appeared from the scullery and inspected knees and chairs ...
— A Prisoner in Fairyland • Algernon Blackwood



Words linked to "Sew" :   sew together, hemstitch, tailor, tack, retick, stitch, finedraw, backstitch, cast on, hem, fix, resew, fashion, tuck, tailor-make, tick, secure, baste, gather, pucker, run up, conjoin



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