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Touching   Listen
adjective
Touching  adj.  Affecting; moving; pathetic; as, a touching tale.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Touching" Quotes from Famous Books



... feet thick, beneath which is another formation of the basaltic rock, and beneath this another body of cement and gravel. We named this formation "Column Rock." The upper formation, from which the rock takes its name, consists of basaltic columns about thirty feet high, closely touching each other, the columns being from three to five feet in diameter. A little farther on we descended the sides of the canon, through which runs a large creek. We crossed this creek and camped on the south side. Our camp is about four hundred feet in elevation above the Yellowstone, ...
— The Discovery of Yellowstone Park • Nathaniel Pitt Langford

... laughed heartily; "have we not left him at the wrestling ground? Was not Democrates his schoolfellow once, his second self to-day? And touching his beauty, his valour, his modesty," the young man's eyes shone with loyal enthusiasm, "do not say 'over-praised' ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis

... you too't? 2.Cit. It was an answer, how apply you this? Men. The Senators of Rome, are this good Belly, And you the mutinous Members: For examine Their Counsailes, and their Cares; disgest things rightly, Touching the Weale a'th Common, you shall finde No publique benefit which you receiue But it proceeds, or comes from them to you, And no way from your selues. What do you thinke? You, the great Toe of this Assembly? 2.Cit. I the ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... Evans, however, dispensed with Amos. Another grangerised edition of the same satire, also in the British Museum, compiled by W.M. Tartt, has an engraving of Amos Cottle and two portraits of Lamb—the Hancock drawing, and the Brook Pulham caricature. Byron's lines touching Lamb ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

... are the hosts; the companies in pride Come touching, all the breadth of either side; And the pagans do marvellously strike. So many shafts, by God! in pieces lie And crumpled shields, and sarks with mail untwined! So spattered all the earth there would you find That through the field the grass so green and fine With men's life-blood ...
— The Song of Roland • Anonymous

... their money legally. To impose upon other people was to him a sign of power, a perpetual proof that he had won the right to despise those feeble beings who suffer themselves to be preyed upon in this world. Oh! who has ever truly understood the lamb lying peacefully at the feet of God?—touching emblem of all terrestrial victims, myth of their future, suffering and weakness glorified! This lamb it is which the miser fattens, puts in his fold, slaughters, cooks, eats, and then despises. The pasture of misers is compounded of money and ...
— Eugenie Grandet • Honore de Balzac

... a long time before a table crowded with a motley gathering of toys, dolls and books. With so much coveted treasure before her it was hard to remember Aunt Maria's injunction to refrain from touching. ...
— Patchwork - A Story of 'The Plain People' • Anna Balmer Myers

... of father and mother are coincident. At a certain point your responsibilities touching the training of your children blend. I find nothing in the Word of God which separates fathers and mothers in relation to bringing up their children in the ways of virtue and ...
— Mrs Whittelsey's Magazine for Mothers and Daughters - Volume 3 • Various

... independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 Communist counter-coup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan Communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-Communist mujahedin rebels. Subsequently, a series of civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement ...
— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States

... opposition to their presence. Meetings were held, exciting speeches were made and street fights became common. The East St. Louis Journal is said to have printed a series of articles under the caption, "Make East St. Louis a Lily White Town." It was a simple matter of touching off the smoldering tinder. In the riot that followed over a hundred negroes were killed. These, for the most part lived away from the places of the most violent disturbances, and were returning home, unconscious of ...
— Negro Migration during the War • Emmett J. Scott

... desire thee, O grandsire, to tell me what the ordinances are that have been laid down by the acts touching the deities and the (deceased) ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... the black, touching his thigh; and then from out of one tightly clasped hand he took a roughly doubled-up piece of paper, holding it out to the boy with a peculiar look of awe in ...
— King o' the Beach - A Tropic Tale • George Manville Fenn

... and stopped upon its very brink. Hurrying on as fast as he could, the man found the colt lying dead, suffocated in the mud and water. The poor mare had unfortunately been unable to procure his help—though she tried her best—in time to save her foal. This touching instance of maternal affection is a very interesting example of the way in which the "dumb" animals—as they are somewhat absurdly called—make up for the want of speech. The mare's strange cry and her extreme restlessness were as eloquent ...
— Little Folks - A Magazine for the Young (Date of issue unknown) • Various

... common heat of the earth melts the under surface of it, and the upper one evaporates by its solution in the air. The great evaporation of ice was observed by Mr. Boyle, which experiment I repeated some time ago. Having suspended a piece of ice by a wire and weighed it with care without touching it with my hand, I hung it out the whole of a clear frosty night, and found in the morning it had lost nearly a fifth of its weight. Mr. N. Wallerius has since observed that ice at the time of its congelation evaporates faster ...
— The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin

... effectively the peculiar appearance of a crowd of barristers assembled in a Court of Law. They are a type apart, and their odd headgear accentuates all the peculiarities of their faces. No one has, however, succeeded so well as Boz in touching off their peculiarities. This sort of histrionic guise and bearing is assumed with a view to impose on his friends and the public, to suggest an idea that they have much or at least something ...
— Bardell v. Pickwick • Percy Fitzgerald

... according as the French hath: whose outward procedings you are to imitate and follow, in such sort as you be not his inferour, according as those of our Nation heeretofore with him resident can informe you. Touching your demeanour after your placing, your [sic—KTH] are wisely to proceede considering both French and Venetian will haue an enuious eye on you: whome if they perceiue wise and well aduised, they will ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, Volume 9 - Asia, Part 2 • Richard Hakluyt

... This was touching Mrs Lupin on a tender point. She turned to trim the candle on the chimney-piece, and said, with ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens

... Newport, to employ, if necessary, a private and confidential person or persons to go into all such places and among all such persons as he may have reason to believe to be likely to give any information touching Rhode Island affairs, and to report with the greatest dispatch, if necessary, to the President. He will also address a letter to General Wool conveying to him the fears entertained of a hostile invasion ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Tyler - Section 2 (of 3) of Volume 4: John Tyler • Compiled by James D. Richardson

... and divert the Princess and win her approbation. Prince Narcissus first made friends with all the birds in Potentilla's little domain, and taught them to sing her name and her praises, with all their sweetest trills and most touching melodies, and all day long to tell her how dearly he loved her. Grumedan, thereupon, declared that there was nothing new about that, since the birds had sung since the world began, and all lovers had imagined that they sang for them alone. Therefore ...
— The Green Fairy Book • Various

... which led to the pavilion, they saw Madame Michaud, sitting in the open air before the door, employed in making a baby's garment. The young woman thus placed, thus employed, added the human charm that was needed to complete the scene,—a charm so touching in its actuality that painters have committed the error of endeavoring to convey it in their pictures. Such artists forget that the SOUL of a landscape, if they represent it truly, is so grand that the human ...
— Sons of the Soil • Honore de Balzac

... graveyard of Rock Spring, seven miles east of Charlotte. Many of his descendants lie buried in the graveyard at Philadelphia Church, two miles from Rock Spring, at which latter place the congregation worshipped before the Revolution, mingling with their pious devotion many touching and prayerful appeals for the final deliverance of their country from the storms of the approaching conflict of ...
— Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical • C. L. Hunter

... making his preparations. At half-past eight he said, touching Harry on the shoulder: "It is time to start, monsieur. I have got the bag of money. Everything is in the boat, and I saw the men start with it. It is time for us to go ...
— In the Reign of Terror - The Adventures of a Westminster Boy • G. A. Henty

... They say: "Messire, touching that demand you make upon us to go to King Mark and to confess our fall, that we will do as you desire; and as for Sir Bleoberis, we met him only a short while ago, and he cannot even now be very far from ...
— The Story of the Champions of the Round Table • Howard Pyle

... Bayardo, what do you want of me?' He answered, 'To defend my honour,' and without more words drew near; and each thrust hard with the sword, Don Alonzo getting a slight wound on his face. After that, they thrust at each other many times more, without touching. Monsieur de Bayard soon discovered the ruse of his adversary, who no sooner delivered his thrusts than he at once covered his face so that no hurt could be done him; and he bethought himself of a way to meet it. So, the moment Don Alonzo raised his arm ...
— The Red True Story Book • Various

... in tears. He did not ask the reason; they both felt embarrassed, and yet each was glad of the other's presence. Mr. Haydon did not speak, but Maria brushed her tears away, and tried to go on sewing. She was mending the lining of the second-best black coat with most touching care. ...
— The Life of Nancy • Sarah Orne Jewett

... him, Miss Betsy?" he asked, touching his mink-skin cap, as Miss Lavender crawled through the nearest panel of the lofty ...
— The Story Of Kennett • Bayard Taylor

... There is something touching in the gradual retirement before civilization of these delicate aborigines. They do not wait for the actual brute contact of red bricks and curbstones, but they feel the danger miles away. The Indians called the low plantain "the white man's footstep"; and these shy creatures gradually ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 42, April, 1861 • Various

... I have provided," the Fleming said. He opened the door. "See you that stone slab, above a foot in thickness; it looks solid, but it is not. It is worked by a counterpoise, and when it is lowered," and touching a spring, it began to descend, thus closing the stairway, "not only would it baffle them did they find the entrance above, but it would prevent any fire reaching here. The staircase is of stone, and above us is a strongly arched cellar, which would ...
— A March on London • G. A. Henty

... begining and name of the philosophers called Druides, whome Caesar and all other ancient Greeke and Latine writers doo affirme to haue had their begining in Britaine, and to haue bin brought from thence into Gallia, insomuch that when there arose any doubt in that countrie touching any point of their discipline, they did repaire to be resolued therein into Britaine, where, speciallie in the Ile of Anglesey (as Humfrey Llhoyd witnesseth) they [Sidenote: Anti. lib. 5. Annius ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (1 of 8) • Raphael Holinshed

... now a religious refuge, were assembled in their little chapel—a sort of grotto roughly hewn out of the natural rock. Fifteen in number, they stood in rows of three abreast, their white woollen robes touching the ground, their white cowls thrown back, and their dark faces and flashing eyes turned devoutly toward the altar whereon blazed in strange and solitary brilliancy a Cross of Fire. At the first glance it was easy to see that they were a peculiar ...
— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli

... They swept the gold up in handfuls and tossed it into the air, laughing like madmen as the light gleamed on the yellow surfaces. And at length when they were wearied of touching it and caressing it, Hovey apportioned the spoils: to Cochrane, by common assent, the ten shares, a fortune; to Sam Hall, Kyle, and Flint, two shares each, for they had been leaders in the fight; to himself ten ...
— Harrigan • Max Brand

... later the criminal slid silently into Dodge's room. Carefully putting on rubber gloves and avoiding touching the register, he wrenched the telephone from the grasp of the dead man, replacing it in its normal position. Only for a second did he pause to look at his victim as he destroyed the evidence ...
— The Exploits of Elaine • Arthur B. Reeve

... stir at the door and on her shuffling, slippered feet old Miriam entered, handing some packages to Madame de Coulevain. Then she turned to revolve about the bright figure of her young mistress, her eyes glistening fondly, her dark fingers touching a soft fold of silver ribbon, while under her breath she chanted in a croon like a lullaby, "Beautiful as the dawn ... she will walk upon the heart of her husband with foot of rose petals ... she will dazzle him with the beams of her eyes and with the locks of her hair, she will bind him to ...
— The Fortieth Door • Mary Hastings Bradley

... he'll turn in. We bid him good-night, hope he'll be better, and then sit down and discuss news. Odd that people and children should be taken ill, but no one will for a moment admit the possibility of Influenza touching us. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, January 25th, 1890 • Various

... know how to handle them. An humble spirit is also a great safeguard. After starting, the usual number of slight accidents occurred, but there was nothing to interfere with our steady progress into the silent, lonely land, where the great Dragon, whose tail we were now just touching, tore the air to tatters with his writhings. Our light oars were snapped like reeds, but luckily we had plenty of extras, and some ten-foot ones were cut down to eight, and these proved to be strong enough. On the morning of the 23d we were treated to a snow-storm and the air was very ...
— The Romance of the Colorado River • Frederick S. Dellenbaugh

... and then one night apoplexy turned its hooked and icy fingers around his throat. From this fateful day he became morose and harsh. He accused his wife and son of being insincere in their devotion, charging that their touching and gentle care was showered upon him so tenderly only because his money was all invested. Elvira and Philippe shed bitter tears, and redoubled their caresses to this malicious old man, whose broken voice would ...
— International Short Stories: French • Various

... 'Conservatori.' Probably a colored mask of wax or some other material was modelled in the classical style on the face of the corpse, with which the gilded hair of which we read would harmonize admirably. The touching point in the story is not the fact itself, but the firm belief that an ancient body, which was now thought to be at last really before men's eyes, must of necessity be far more beautiful ...
— The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy • Jacob Burckhardt

... while he was talking, changed several times so completely that it bore positively no resemblance to itself as it had appeared just before. His eyes, his mouth, his moustache, and even his beard, all were new. Each time it was a beautiful and touching physiognomy, and these transformations were produced suddenly in the penumbra; and for five minutes it was the same face, that could not be compared to that of five minutes before. And then, I know not how, it changed again, and ...
— The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories • Leo Tolstoy

... When the melancholy pageant had entered the great western door, and was half way up the body of the church, the solemn sound of the organ and the anthem swelled on the ear, and vibrated to every heart. It was deeply touching.... The organ echoed through the aisles. The sinking sun shed his parting beams through the west window—and we left him ...
— Art in England - Notes and Studies • Dutton Cook

... and pillows appeared to be filled with asphalt, though it should be remembered that a soft bed is unendurable in the tropics. Every bed is provided with a cylindrical bolster, six feet long and about fifteen inches in diameter, which serves to keep the sheet from touching the body. They are known as ...
— Where the Strange Trails Go Down • E. Alexander Powell

... Christmas morning, Mr. and Mrs. A. entertain Mr. and Mrs. B. and Mr. and Mrs. C. at breakfast, we infer at once their intimate friendship and congenial companionship. One may lunch impersonally with comparative strangers; one may dine formally touching elbows with one's dearest foe but one does not of choice breakfast with any one but a friend, or a friend of a friend—graciously accepted on trust. Breakfast is the most intimate breaking of bread; not ...
— Etiquette • Agnes H. Morton

... required that he should be patient, scrupulous, judicious, but above all things hard-hearted. I think it may be doubted whether Thackeray did bring himself to read the basketfuls of manuscripts with which he was deluged, but he probably did, sooner or later, read the touching little private notes by which they were accompanied,—the heartrending appeals, in which he was told that if this or the other little article could be accepted and paid for, a starving family might ...
— Thackeray • Anthony Trollope

... might have more opportunities to tell the story of Jesus to her boys, as she called those in the Chinese school. And when death came to her, six Chinese acted as pall-bearers at her funeral, at her own request. The church was more than half filled with Chinese, and the scene was touching in the extreme, as one by one they went to look upon her ...
— The American Missionary — Volume 38, No. 01, January, 1884 • Various

... rock that can imprison fire,[349] the clouds that continually veil the mountain's crest,[350] the flames that burst from its summit, the subterranean rumblings,[351] the terrors of the lava stream. He concludes with the touching story of the Catanian brothers who, neglecting all else, sought only to save their aged parents from the flames. Their piety had its reward; they, and they alone, escaped from the lava; their neighbours, who sought to save ...
— Post-Augustan Poetry - From Seneca to Juvenal • H.E. Butler

... of life. All have some virtue if we leave it them In peace and quiet, all may lose some part By sifting too minutely good and bad. The tenderer and the timider of creatures Often desert the brood that has been handled, Or turned about, or indiscreetly looked at. The slightest touches, touching constantly, Irritate ...
— The Young Lady's Mentor - A Guide to the Formation of Character. In a Series of Letters to Her Unknown Friends • A Lady

... public benefit of the Church. 6. But though it should fall out that in all the former we should be utterly disappointed, we shall have this peace and comfort upon our own spirits, that we have not hid our talent in the earth, nor neglected to bear witness to this part of Christ's truth, touching the government of his Church, by his kingly power, wherein Christ was opposed so much in all ages, Psalm ii. 1, 2, 3; Luke xix. 14, 27; Acts iv., and for which Christ did suffer so much in a special and immediate manner, as[1] some ...
— The Divine Right of Church Government • Sundry Ministers Of Christ Within The City Of London

... by the Lord's commandment, don't make it any better. And a good deal of the fightin' they did in the old time was sartinly without reason and ag'in jedgment, specially where they killed the womenfolks and the leetle uns." And while the old man had thus been communicating with himself, touching the character of the Old Testament, he had been turning the leaves until he had reached the opening chapters of the New, and had come to the description of the Saviour's birth, and the angelic announcement ...
— Holiday Tales - Christmas in the Adirondacks • W. H. H. Murray

... may, this business of touching the bells, getting up into them—and you know they're consecrated—of attributing to them the gift of prophecy, of involving them in the interpretation of dream—an art formally forbidden in Leviticus—displeased me, and I demanded, somewhat rudely, that ...
— La-bas • J. K. Huysmans

... Touching and sad, a tale is told, Like a penitent hymn of the Psalmist old, Of the fast which the good man lifelong kept With a haunting sorrow that never slept, As the circling year brought round the time Of an error that left the sting of crime, When he sat on ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... subbuteo, Linnaeus. French, "Le Hobereau." The Hobby can only be considered as a rather rare occasional visitant, just touching the Islands on its southern migration in the autumn, and late in the autumn, for Mr. MacCulloch informs me that a Hobby was killed in the Islands, probably Guernsey, in November, 1873, and Mr. Couch, writing to me on the 10th of November, told me he had had a Hobby brought to him on the ...
— Birds of Guernsey (1879) • Cecil Smith

... said, "the moon is getting up, and it is making a path of silver on the waves, and it is touching the head of Slieve Nagorna. The dear old Slieve generally keeps his snow nightcap on, and I dare say he has it by now. In very hot weather, sometimes, it melts and disappears; but probably he has got his first coat of snow by now, just ...
— Light O' The Morning • L. T. Meade

... return to my story: as soon as Bellarmine was recovered, which was somewhat within a month from his receiving the wound, he set out, according to agreement, for Leonora's father's, in order to propose the match, and settle all matters with him touching ...
— Joseph Andrews Vol. 1 • Henry Fielding

... in the Kwoh Yue, an ancillary history of these times, but touching more upon personal matters, usually considered to have been written by the same man that first expanded Confucius' annals, to the effect that in 489 B.C. (when Confucius was wandering about on his travels, a disappointed and disgusted man) the ...
— Ancient China Simplified • Edward Harper Parker

... the king and council, and from them to the parliament; who on May the 26th, 1698, ordered a bill for settling the trade to that place: Mr. Montague transacted this whole affair; and by his industry and skill, in touching the affections of the people, raised two-millions, by only doubling the duties on paper, parchment, and salt; which to have done by any other means, was at that time matter of the utmost difficulty. These proofs of affection and zeal ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Vol. III • Theophilus Cibber

... beliefs, and abide in the choice that we have made without questioning it further, as Hazael has said. Yet it is hard to keep thoughts of the brethren we have left out of our minds. How are we, Hazael, to remain unmoved when rumours touching on the lives of those we have left behind reach us? Is it not merely natural that we should desire to hear how our brethren fare in married life? Dost think, Hazael, that those we left behind never ask each other how we fare in our ...
— The Brook Kerith - A Syrian story • George Moore

... had some time before commenced respecting Masinissa, was delayed from one cause after another; for the Numidian was desirous by all means of conferring with Scipio in person, and of touching his right hand in confirmation of their compact. This was the cause of Scipio's undertaking at this time a journey of such a length, and into so remote a quarter. Masinissa, when at Gades, received information from Marcius of ...
— History of Rome, Vol III • Titus Livius

... a grace comes into the close of the discourse which it was fit to make touching the signs of Nobility; because in him Nobility reveals them all, through all the ages of ...
— The Banquet (Il Convito) • Dante Alighieri

... the children's festival, touching home life and child life with its great majesty and beauty. Can any one dare to despise simple things and simple souls when all Christendom comes adoring to a poor cradle and angels stoop to sing carols ...
— Two Maiden Aunts • Mary H. Debenham

... atomicity, quantivilence, monad, dryad, univalent, perissad, quadrivalent, and twenty other terms, each expressing some endowment of power in this in visible atom. Refer to one more presumed ability, an ability [Page 257] to keep themselves in exact relation of distance and power to each other, without touching. ...
— Recreations in Astronomy - With Directions for Practical Experiments and Telescopic Work • Henry Warren

... came out of Mr Cooper's front gate, Humphreys had to run the gauntlet—not of an organized demonstration, but of a good deal of touching of hats and careful contemplation from the men and women who had gathered in somewhat unusual numbers in the village street. He had, further, to exchange some remarks with the wife of the lodge-keeper as they passed the park gates, and with the lodge-keeper himself, who was attending to the ...
— Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - Part 2: More Ghost Stories • Montague Rhodes James

... find this passage: "I have only four girls who can read English and understand it. My two little Dyaks, Limo and Ambat, are very fond of learning English hymns, and say them in such a plaintive, touching voice, pronouncing each syllable so clearly, but they don't understand it until it has been explained to them in Malay. Limo's brother and uncle came this week from Sarebas—two fine, tall men, with only chawats[2] and earrings by way of clothes. ...
— Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak • Harriette McDougall

... are also marked by tabulae. Their cells form elliptical tubes, touching each other at the edges, and appearing in cross section like the links of a chain. They became extinct at the end of ...
— The Elements of Geology • William Harmon Norton

... used. Five or six players is a convenient number. Each contributes an arranged stake to the pool. The dealer gives three cards to each player and turns up another; if this is not lower than an eight (ace is lowest) he goes on till such a card is exposed. The player on the dealer's left, without touching or looking at his cards, can bet the amount of the pool, or any part of it, that among his cards is one that is higher (of the same suit) than the turn-up. If he wins, he takes the amount from the pool; if he loses, he pays it to the pool. Each player does the same in turn, the ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 - "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" • Various

... remembered the sacrifice she had made me, and believed that she felt it too. It was in vain, that, with a tender and generous devotion—never found but in woman—she assured me that my love was a recompense for all; the more touching was her tenderness, the more poignant my remorse. I never loved but her; I have never, therefore, entered into the common-place of passion, and I cannot, even to this day, look upon her sex as ours do in general. ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... Your wife, that is so meek and patient. And therefore trow* me, Thomas, if thee lest,** *believe **please Ne strive not with thy wife, as for the best. And bear this word away now, by thy faith, Touching such thing, lo, what the wise man saith: 'Within thy house be thou no lion; To thy subjects do none oppression; Nor make thou thine acquaintance for to flee.' And yet, Thomas, eftsoones* charge I thee, *again Beware from ...
— The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems • Geoffrey Chaucer

... He must have been glad at this moment that he had not followed his brother's malicious suggestions and had not separated from his dear Josephine! The affection of the young General Bonaparte revived in the heart of the sovereign. He thought Josephine more gracious, more touching, more lovable than ever, and it was with an outburst of happiness that he placed the Imperial diadem on her charming and ...
— The Court of the Empress Josephine • Imbert de Saint-Amand

... as though she expected to see a fairy sprite in gauzy robes approaching her from the shadows of the house! She rose and crept toward the window. No sprite was there—only Keineth sitting before the piano, her small hands softly touching the keys as though by magic she drew the melody from them. Across her fair head fell a slanting bar of sunlight. To this her eyes ...
— Keineth • Jane D. Abbott

... in this touching manner in Dundee, struggling patiently and courageously with their poverty. Mary thought only of her brother, and indulged in dreams of a prosperous future for him. She had long given up all hope of ...
— In Search of the Castaways • Jules Verne

... the Enchanter himself stood before them, and touching the hare with his wand, restored Isabella to her human form. She still wore the garments of Florian, however, and the Prince still thought her ...
— The Firelight Fairy Book • Henry Beston

... delighted, shewing their gratitude to our captain by rubbing his breast and arms with their hands. The reception of these presents occasioned all the other women to return from the wood, that they likewise might participate; for which purpose they surrounded the captain, to the number of about twenty, touching and rubbing him with their hands, as soliciting him for such trinkets as he had given the others. He accordingly gave each of them a small bell, on which they all fell a singing and dancing. We here found great quantities of mackerel, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr

... perpendicular buttress of the ridge stood out, so as nearly to close up the road. It presented a surface of about twenty feet directly in front, as we drove up, and, from the top, which was nearly a hundred and twenty feet from the ground, a cascade fell into the air for about forty feet, and, without touching anything, became dishevelled, and ...
— Bertha and Her Baptism • Nehemiah Adams

... of a heart," she continued; "and upon touching a spring there fly up two tiny figures, which, with fluttering wings, seem to devour ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, XXII • various

... cause of the laughter. He had himself the loudest laugh of any man I ever met, and he laughed incessantly. Again and again, when his ringing peal sounded through the room and we saw the scandalised faces of our fellow-members, some one amongst us would remind him of the line touching "the loud laugh that speaks the vacant mind," but he only laughed the more loudly, and compelled us also to join in his infectious merriment. Looking back upon the years which I was destined to spend in constant association with that ...
— Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885 • Stuart J. Reid, ed.

... the gallery and entered the living room. Everything about it was of the solid Tudor days and bespoke, even as the portraits, a period when the family must have been of some considerable importance. She wandered about the room touching some things timidly—others boldly. For example—on the piano she found a perfectly carved bronze statuette of Cupid. She gave a little elfish cry of delight, took the statuette in her arms ...
— Peg O' My Heart • J. Hartley Manners

... eye-teeth now," said Gladding. "Holden's as safe as you or me. And, Prime," he added, rising, and, as he took leave, making a peculiar gesture with the thumb of his right hand touching the end of his nose, and his fingers twinkling in the air, "you're too old a fox to need teaching, but it will do no harm to say I advise you to keep as dark as ...
— The Lost Hunter - A Tale of Early Times • John Turvill Adams

... example, Albert Pike, in his letter, "Touching Masonic Symbolism," speaks of the "poor, rude, unlettered, uncultivated working Stone-masons," who attended the Assemblies, he is obviously confounding Free-masons with the rough Stone-masons of the Guilds. Over ...
— The Builders - A Story and Study of Masonry • Joseph Fort Newton

... illustration of biology touching ethics, I have recently come to believe that the teaching concerning heredity and eugenics, which should be a standard part of the best sex-instruction, has its greatest value in the ethical appeal, ...
— Sex-education - A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its - relation to human life • Maurice Alpheus Bigelow

... irritation with the presence of man. As the result of this treatment, necessarily the young horse will acquire—not fondness merely, but an absolute craving for human beings. A good deal can be done by touching, stroking, patting those parts of the body which the creature likes to have so handled. These are the hairiest parts, or where, if there is anything annoying him, the horse can least of ...
— On Horsemanship • Xenophon

... With his lips touching Decoud's ear he declared his belief that there was somebody else besides themselves upon the lighter. Twice now he had heard the sound of ...
— Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard • Joseph Conrad

... as it seemed, traversing the air. The Count and his staff immediately galloped in all directions; but I had not escaped a hundred yards, when the shell dropped into the spot where I had been standing, and burst with a tremendous explosion almost immediately on its touching the ground. The cavalry had dispersed and the explosion was, I believe, without injury. But this, at least, gave evidence that the enemy were not far off, and the eagerness of the troops was excited to the highest pitch: ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 • Various

... of this abrupt question brought Bea to her sense of the situation. She put out one hand to draw Robbie beyond earshot. But Robbie did not notice her. She was already touching Miss More's arm. ...
— Beatrice Leigh at College - A Story for Girls • Julia Augusta Schwartz

... sophisticated moderns who believed and believe more in intellect than in anything else, many of whom paid tribute to him, and reverenced him, either in terms of sincere friendship, or by occasional visit. The various anecdotes, touching enough, are but further proof of the innocence of this so simple and ...
— Adventures in the Arts - Informal Chapters on Painters, Vaudeville, and Poets • Marsden Hartley

... the grass by the doorway, sheltered by the breadfruit shade, yet with the hot rays of the afternoon sun just touching her naked feet, was a girl. A girl of fifteen or sixteen, naked, except for a kilt of gaily-striped material reaching from her waist to her knees. Her long black hair was drawn back from the forehead, and tied behind with a loop of the elastic vine. A scarlet ...
— The Blue Lagoon - A Romance • H. de Vere Stacpoole

... required his whole attention and faculties; and then he shut himself up for weeks together in his chambers, or at the university, to collate old manuscripts, or edite a Greek tragedy, or expose a grave pedant, without seeing a single boon companion, or touching a glass of wine. I saw him once at the London Institution with a large patch of coarse brown paper on his nose, the skirts of his rusty black coat hung with cob-webs, and talking in a tone of suavity approaching to condescension to one of the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 290 - Volume X. No. 290. Saturday, December 29, 1827. • Various

... back, to see the savage beast grovelling itself along, with its lower parts almost touching the sand, and seeming more than ever to keep up that stealthy, cat-like approach, so as to get within ...
— Diamond Dyke - The Lone Farm on the Veldt - Story of South African Adventure • George Manville Fenn

... morning, Paul felt his dress touching bottom, the current slackened, and he knew he had wandered into a false channel. With some difficulty, he assumed an upright position and the moment he did so, found his legs ...
— The Story of Paul Boyton - Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World • Paul Boyton

... slipping through and ran at us with his stick. My mother went first and escaped him. Then came my sister, then I, then my brother. My father was last of all. The man hit with his stick and it came down thud along side of me, just touching my fur. He hit again and broke the foreleg of my brother. Still we all managed to get through into the wood, except my father who ...
— The Mahatma and the Hare • H. Rider Haggard

... "Touching upon some of those unwritten exploits of the Army," I darkly hinted: "I'll bet I can find a brilliant historiographer not a hundred miles away from the 'Three Nuns' who could dictate a few of 'em that would fairly make the Daily Mail turn ...
— War and the Weird • Forbes Phillips

... her "lost lamb" hiding behind a rain-barrel when she opened up the house next morning, and there was a mighty touching and affecting scene. In fact, the Widow must have touched him at least a hundred times and every time he was affected to tears, for she was using a bed slat, which is a powerfully strong moral agent for making a boy see the ...
— Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son • George Horace Lorimer

... bearer grew tired and the king or the queen must get upon another, they were not allowed to touch the ground. The reason was that all the land they touched became their own, and the people carried them about so that they themselves might not lose their land and houses by the king and queen touching them. ...
— The Book of Missionary Heroes • Basil Mathews

... conscious of a considerable sense of disappointment. The thing had been almost touching just now, as the reserve first broke up, but it was a very poor little soul, it seemed to him, that had at last made its appearance. (He did not yet see that that made it all the more touching.) He did not quite see what to do next. He was Christian enough to resent the whole affair; ...
— None Other Gods • Robert Hugh Benson

... women are teachers; and more women than men are interested parents of school children. The church is also more vital to women to-day than to men. On the side of industries, it is clear that our 8,000,000 independent wage-earning women have a desperate stake in all governmental action touching the regulation of working conditions. In whatever concerns general sanitation, safe water, and pure foods, all are equally interested who must breathe and eat to live. Surely the need of women for political protection is quite as great as that ...
— Woman in Modern Society • Earl Barnes

... me in the hut and Hugh, who could read and write and cast accounts, showed him the roll of the Manor, in which were written all the names of our fields and men, and he asked a thousand questions touching the land, the timber, the grazing, the mill, and the fish-ponds, and the worth of every man in the valley. But never he named the Lady AElueva's name, nor went he near the Great Hall. By night he drank with us in the hut. Yes, he sat on ...
— Puck of Pook's Hill • Rudyard Kipling

... leaves; the grass springing slenderly, tenderly on the unmown slopes of the roadsides, or giving up its life in spicy sweetness from the scythe; the gardeners pausing from their leisurely employ, and once in the person of their foreman touching their hats to the companions; the wistaria-garlanded cottage of the keeper of the estate now ceded to the city; the Gothic stable of the former proprietor looking like a Gothic chapel in its dell; the stone mansion on its height opening to curiosity a vague collection of minerals, and recalling ...
— Imaginary Interviews • W. D. Howells

... your Lordship for your last favour at St. John's, and did, till now, reckon myself under no less a debt to my Ladies for the honour at the same time done me, in their commands touching Mr. Bonithan. But, my Lord, I have lately had the misfortune of being undeceived in the latter, by coming to know the severity with which some of my Ladies are pleased to discourse of me in relation thereto. I assure your Lordship, I was so big with ...
— Selected English Letters (XV - XIX Centuries) • Various

... distinctly and exclusively private and individual in their whole theory and practice. While in other respects our forefathers did in various ways and degrees recognize a social solidarity and a political unity with proportionate rights and duties, their theory and practice as to all matters touching the getting and sharing of wealth were aggressively and brutally individualistic, antisocial, ...
— Equality • Edward Bellamy

... in his ear from Fenellan, touching that man Blathenoy, set the wheels of Victor's brain at work upon his defences, for a minute, on the walk Westward. Who knew?—who did not know! He had a torpid consciousness that he cringed to the world, with an entreaty to the great monster to hold off in ignorance; and the ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... away the bloody shirt from the shoulder and exposed the gaping hole to view. It was still bleeding slightly, but he noted with satisfaction that the bullet had passed completely through the fleshy part of the shoulder without touching the bone, a painful wound, but not a fatal one. He washed it clean with river water and bound it up with strips from his own shirt. "You'll be all right in a few days," he declared cheerfully. "Now just lay quiet. I am going to paddle in to the nearest point and start a fire and ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... its situations, the story is worked up in that touching and quaint strain which never grows wearisome no matter how often the lights and shadows of love are introduced. It rings true, and does not tax the ...
— The Farringdons • Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler

... to the back of the stall, touching Westley as he passed. Kicking the loose dirt with his toes, and bending his head to bury his voice, Langdon continued in a subdued tone: "The Indian'll cut out the pace so fast that it'll choke off Lauzanne. The Chestnut's a plugger an' ...
— Thoroughbreds • W. A. Fraser

... readers or antiquaries give any information touching the church, the ancient tombs and effigies, the Cotton family, the ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 64, January 18, 1851 • Various

... thoroughly a master of the mixed motives of human character, and he here shows us the Queen, who was so criminal in some respects, not without sensibility and affection in other relations of life.—Ophelia is a character almost too exquisitely touching to be dwelt upon. Oh rose of May, oh flower too soon faded! Her love, her madness, her death, are described with the truest touches of tenderness and pathos. It is a character which nobody but Shakespeare could have drawn in the way that he has done, and to the conception of which there ...
— Characters of Shakespeare's Plays • William Hazlitt

... a word for a moment, but drew a long breath, while the delicate pink in her cheeks deepened and her eyes lighted up. Then she began going slowly from flower to flower, laying her face against the cool, velvety purple of the pansies, touching the roses with her lips, and tilting the white lily-cups to ...
— The Little Colonel • Annie Fellows Johnston

... likenesses, varying with age, sex, features, and expression. These personal portraits were taken and laid up here, doubtless, to preserve their remembrance when the original had crumbled to ashes. What a touching voice is this from antiquity, telling us that our poor, fond human nature was ever the same! The heart longed to be kept still in remembrance when the mortal frame was gone. But how vain the wish beyond the vanishing circle of hearts that returned its ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... occasions, the long big room where McKeon presided over so many drunken spirits—where poor Feemy made her last arrangements with her lover at the ball—and where so soon afterwards she was brought forward to give her evidence touching his death, while his cold body was lying dead on the table before her,—this long big room is now set apart for yet another purpose. The grand jury are to dine there, and already the knives and forks are laid out ...
— The Macdermots of Ballycloran • Anthony Trollope

... answered he, again touching his hat, with all the respect he could possibly put into the action. "It's a lucky day which I see ...
— At the Back of the North Wind • George MacDonald

... won't. I don't choose to keep company with such as you. But if ever I hear of you touching them again, you shall have more of me than you'll like, and you may tell your father so ...
— Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood • George MacDonald

... the island. Next day, being Tuesday the 26th November, the admiral sent several men in different directions, to endeavour to learn if any news could be got of those whom he had left at the Nativity. Many of the Indians came up to the Spaniards, without fear, touching their dress, and saying tubon camisa that is doublet and shirt, to shew that they knew the Spanish names of these articles. These circumstances gave great comfort to the admiral, as he supposed the Indians would have been afraid, if those he had left in the new town were dead. ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III. • Robert Kerr

... horse is dismissed,—you won't have to complain any more,' said Evan, touching her hand. ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... it," she said; "I only say that these children—I mean young girls at Reddy's age—are very apt to take fancies; and then they get tired of the youths they have known well, and will hardly speak to them. Human nature is of derisive and touching interest, Mr. Verty," sighed the lady, "you must not expect to find Reddy an ...
— The Last of the Foresters • John Esten Cooke

... proceeded to "cut capers." Encouraged by the admiration of the other children, he must have become more and more reckless, so that he soon reached a point far enough distant from land to prevent him from touching bottom with his pole. ...
— The Chums of Scranton High - Hugh Morgan's Uphill Fight • Donald Ferguson

... straits, and, on Shirley Brooks's initiative, the "Punch men" at once set about devising a means to help them. The result was the theatrical performance referred to on pp. 132-134. The Moray Minstrels wound up this famous entertainment, and Shirley Brooks delivered a touching ...
— The History of "Punch" • M. H. Spielmann

... course was straight as an arrow for the point at which he was aiming. The cold was less intense than it had been before the snow began to fall, still I felt that if we were to stop we should very likely be frozen to death. Though I kept as close as I could to my companion, almost touching him indeed, so thickly did the snow come down that often I could barely distinguish his misty ...
— Dick Onslow - Among the Redskins • W.H.G. Kingston

... to know Griggins, we became extremely desirous to see so pleasant a fellow, the more especially as a stout gentleman with a powdered head, who was sitting with his breeches buckles almost touching the hob, whispered us he was a wit of the first water, when the door opened, and Mr. Griggins being announced, presented himself, amidst another shout of laughter and a loud clapping of hands from the younger branches. This welcome he acknowledged by sundry contortions ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens

... afternoon he was sent to enjoy the leisure of school with his "standard," or to creep about in the howling chaos of play-time in the yard. After tea he was herded with four hundred others into a day-room quite big enough to allow them to stand without touching each other. Hot pipes ran round the sides under a little bench, and the whitewashed walls were relieved by diagrams of the component parts of a sweet pea and scenes from the life of Abraham. As usual an attempt was made ...
— Essays in Rebellion • Henry W. Nevinson



Words linked to "Touching" :   lap, light touch, manipulation, poignant, stroking, tickle, tactual exploration, impinging, touch, tickling, stroke, handling, grab, skimming, grope, contact, human activity, fingering, affecting, shaving, tap, snatch, brush, grazing, deed, lick, act, palpation, tag, hit, pat, titillation, dig, striking, jab, osculation, hitting, physical contact, buss, snap, moving



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