Free translatorFree translator
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Behest   /bɪhˈɛst/   Listen
Behest

noun
1.
An authoritative command or request.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Behest" Quotes from Famous Books



... over this, with its pungent reminder of ancient days when unhesitating trust had been a factor in the life of the range. Old man Wallace, at the behest of his son, turning over to an unknown stranger property of value, seeking not to know why, and calmly confident of either getting it back or receiving payment for it, was a refreshing draft from his youth. De Launay inspected his new property, found it ...
— Louisiana Lou • William West Winter

... false Pharaoh's legion pressed, Chariots and horsemen following furiously,— Sons of old Israel, at their God's behest, Under the cloud ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, No. 47, September, 1861 • Various

... nimble flight Exulting gained the empyreal height, In heaven to dwell, while here below Thy semblance reigns in mimic show; From thence to earth, at thy behest, Descends fair peace, celestial guest! Beneath whose veil of shining hue Deceit oft lurks, ...
— Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... the honour of seeing Mr. Councillor Bellamy again. There next came an order from the upper regions to make Morris's nephew comfortable till Sunday morning, and to put him, at that time, on board the Peterborough boat for the return journey. The behest of Mr. Councillor was duly executed, and John Clare, on the following Sunday evening, after three days' absence, again walked into his father's cottage at Helpston, a happier and a wiser lad. He had discovered ...
— The Life of John Clare • Frederick Martin

... Prophets is the word of Almighty Allah that saith[FN75] 'And We have already sent Apostles before thee: of some We have told thee, and of others We have told thee naught: yet no Apostle had the power to come with a sign unless by the leave of Allah. But when Allah's behest cometh, everything shall be decided with truth; and then perish they who entreated it as a vain thing'; and the verset which speaketh of the Folk and the Fire is the word of Almighty Allah which saith[FN76] 'O out Lord! Bring us forth from her (the Fire), and, if ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... to what, unless it be to the electric fluid, are we to attribute the magic by which the Will enthrones itself so imperiously in the eye to demolish obstacles at the behest of genius, thunders in the voice, or filters, in spite of dissimulation, through the human frame? The current of that sovereign fluid, which, in obedience to the high pressure of thought or of feeling, flows in a torrent ...
— Louis Lambert • Honore de Balzac

... as his king bade him, and at the ruler's 2735 behest accepted friendship, love, and peace. He was dear to God: therefore he enjoyed tranquility happily and proceeded under the shadow of his Creator, covered 2740 by His protecting wings, while he lived. But God was still angry at Abimeleh for the sin which he had committed against Sarra ...
— Genesis A - Translated from the Old English • Anonymous

... mother-like, her awful face black with the mists of centuries, had aforetime quailed at that white master's command, had bent in love over the cradles of his sons and daughters, and closed in death the sunken eyes of his wife,—aye, too, at his behest had laid herself low to his lust, and borne a tawny man-child to the world, only to see her dark boy's limbs scattered to the winds by midnight marauders riding after "damned Niggers." These were the saddest sights of that woful ...
— The Souls of Black Folk • W. E. B. Du Bois

... not yet recovered from the unaccustomed debauch; their clouded brains seemed too large for their skulls, and their eyeballs ached in their sockets, while they groped tremblingly from rope to rope at the behest of ...
— "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea • Morgan Robertson

... was no way out of his difficulty and hoping that the telling of his secret might after all be of benefit to Olaf, obeyed the queen's behest, relating the story of the kings of Norway and showing how this boy, Olaf, the slayer of Klerkon, was descended in a direct line from the ...
— Olaf the Glorious - A Story of the Viking Age • Robert Leighton

... is of an opposite kind. Admitting that a few wise men are likely to be better governors than the unwise many, yet it is not in their power to fashion an entire people according to their behest. When with the best intentions the benevolent despot begins his regime, he finds the world hard to move. A succession of good kings has at the end of a century left the people an inert and unchanged mass. The Roman world was not permanently improved by the hundred years of ...
— Statesman • Plato

... ended at the behest of the nurse, and Mr. World was asked if he wished to enter the secret departments underground. This question aroused his curiosity and led to a lengthy conversation after which he expressed a desire ...
— Mr. World and Miss Church-Member • W. S. Harris

... outlawed thus by Fate's behest? Drives ye forth open hate, or secret grudge flee ye? Follows ye unappeased an evil-doer's curse? Are ye pursued by poisonous ...
— Russian Lyrics • Translated by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi

... Directors and the Ministers whom they were to control, but even the 180 legislators, both Ancients and Juniors. In this strange fashion did democracy descend on Italy, not mainly as the work of the people, but at the behest of a great organizing genius. It is only fair to add that he summoned to the work of civic reconstruction many of the best intellects of Italy. He appointed a noble, Serbelloni, to be the first President of the Cisalpine Republic, and a scion of the august ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose

... walls— The rotting drawbridge slowly falls— Its dreary silentness appalls! The iron bars are thick with rust And slowly moulder into dust; The roofless turrets show the sky, The moats below are bare and dry— No captain issues proud behest— The guard-room echoes to no jest; As I have said, within those walls The very silentness appalls! In other days it was not so— The Spanish banner, long ago, Above the turrets tall did flow. And many a gallant soldier there With musket or ...
— A Wreath of Virginia Bay Leaves • James Barron Hope

... will, They found each codicil and long bequest Was held in trust until The heirs should carry out his last request— To burn his body (naming witnesses); And they, all eagerness to share, Prepared to carry out this strange behest. ...
— Carolina Chansons - Legends of the Low Country • DuBose Heyward and Hervey Allen

... no thanks for my other service; and being unwilling to run to and fro at his behest, I replied—'Nobody is out ...
— Wuthering Heights • Emily Bronte

... upon her: else shall I farewell the world, withouten fail." The king his father wept and answered, "O my son, I builded thee a Hammam, that it might turn thee from leaving me, and behold, it hath been the cause of thy going forth; but the behest of Allah is a determinate decree."[FN351] Then he wept again and Al-Abbas said to him, "Fear not for me, for thou knowest my prowess and puissance in returning answers in the assemblies of the land and my good breeding and accomplishments together with my skill in rhetoric; ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... 'the judgment which has been pronounced. But I like it not—I agree not to it. Shall the minister of Christ, the ambassador of God, a messenger from Heaven to earth, hold his peace at the behest of a man, though he be an emperor, or of ten thousand men, were all emperors? Not though every Christian in Rome subscribed to this judgment, not though every Christian in the world assented to it, would I. Is Christ to receive laws of Aurelian? Is the cause of God and truth to ...
— Aurelian - or, Rome in the Third Century • William Ware

... and of Jesus—the Jesuits. Unknown, and in silence, they were domiciliated in courts and in families, throughout all nations; and some roamed as itinerants. The will of their general, on their unconditional subserviency to his behest, seemed to create an almost omnipresent power to be controlled by Rome alone. Has not the exercise of it been exemplified in the inquisition? Was it not felt in the massacre of St. Bartholomew? I will not stop to ask the power and control of a Madame Maintenon, ...
— Mysticism and its Results - Being an Inquiry into the Uses and Abuses of Secrecy • John Delafield

... it doth grieve me To give thee cause for grief, my honored friend. Command me, sir! what wouldst thou have me do? At thy behest I will shake off that nature Which from my forefathers I did inherit, Which with my mother's milk I did imbibe, And be no more Politian, but some ...
— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe

... Prince to send us aid, Tell him his kingly promise doth him bind To give us succors, by his covenant made." This said, and thus instruct, his letters signed The trusty herald took, nor longer stayed, But sped him thence to done his Lord's behest, And thus the Duke reduced his thoughts ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... horses of a certain character, is rarely to be seen. Simplicity, indeed, as regards female equestrianism, is now imperatively (and, strange to say, most judiciously) enjoined, by "that same fickle goddess, Fashion," in obedience to whose sovereign behest, a lady's horse, in the olden time, was disguised, as it were, "in cloth ...
— The Young Lady's Equestrian Manual • Anonymous

... was the "pretty little mustard girl" that all fashionable New York had talked about in the past and was dancing with in the present. This was the girl who refused to go to the dogs at the earnest behest of the redoubtable Mrs. Tresslyn. Somehow he felt that Fate had provided him with ...
— From the Housetops • George Barr McCutcheon

... grosser reason. They discussed the mutuality of interests that would be theirs, a lesson of supreme worth to a conventional world. They arranged philanthropic schemes for the betterment of conditions for the little brothers and sisters who gained a sustenance by toil at their behest. But, most of all, they talked those divine absurdities that are the privilege of all true lovers. The husband bewailed the incredible stupidity that had led him into neglect of the most adorable being in the universe; the wife mourned over the ...
— Making People Happy • Thompson Buchanan

... implacable dim warder sate, Besought for parley with a shade within, Dearer to him than life itself had been, Sweeter than sunlight on Illyrian sea, Or bloom of myrtle, or murmur of laden bee, Whom lately from his unconsenting breast The Fates, at some capricious blind behest, Intolerably had reft—Eurydice, Dear to the sunlight as Illyrian sea, Sweet as the murmur of bees, or myrtle bloom— And uncompanioned led her to ...
— Artemis to Actaeon and Other Worlds • Edith Wharton

... decreed by heaven's behest That man from all he loves the best Must sever. That soon or late with breaking heart With all his dear ones ...
— A Day with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy • George Sampson

... clouded cane elegantly in the rue de la Paix or the allee des Acacias. It was too hot and wild and shy a thing, too passionately set in its course, too homesick for the white fulgurant heights of Heaven to negate itself at the behest of French society and conform to what the academicians declared to be "la vielle tradition francaise." Franck was too much an artist in the spirit of La Fontaine and Germaine Pillon and Poussin and the others who ...
— Musical Portraits - Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers • Paul Rosenfeld

... violently protested, "if I am sent into exile at the behest of Tollman, my enemy, I go for all time, knowing that the woman I leave behind is not the woman I thought I knew or the woman I ...
— The Tyranny of Weakness • Charles Neville Buck

... strength, and say that war shall end. Hear, then, our edict: Never from this day Will any woman on the crust of earth Mother a warrior. We have sworn the oath And will go barren to the waiting tomb Rather than breed strong sons at war's behest, Or bring fair daughters into life, to bear The pains of travail, for no end but war. Ay! let the race die out for lack of babes Better a dying race than endless wars! Better a silent world than noise of guns And ...
— Poems of Progress • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... when he saw the countless host of the foreign men upon the river-bank. In his sleep that night came the vision of one in the likeness of a man, white and bright of hue. The messenger named him by his name. The helmet of night glided apart. The behest was given to look up to Heaven to find help, a token of victory. The Emperor's heart was opened and he looked up as the angel, the lovely weaver of peace, had bidden him. Above the roof of clouds he saw the Tree of Glory with its words of promise. The great ...
— Our Catholic Heritage in English Literature of Pre-Conquest Days • Emily Hickey

... it is something," returned the other, as she speedily complied with her mistress's behest. "Thou canst not throw me off like that. Come, my good lady, tell me what it is; there are few things you hide ...
— Heiress of Haddon • William E. Doubleday

... Gawayne's self deluded and undone By the green stranger; and the legend brought A tide of passion flooding Gawayne's thought; A flood-tide, not of fear,—for Gawayne's breast Shrank never at the perilous behest Of noble knighthood,—but the love of life, Compassion, and soul-sickness of the strife. "If any be that loved him!" Oh, to die Far from green-swarded Camelot, and lie Among these bleak and barren hills alone, His end unwept for and his grave unknown,— ...
— Gawayne And The Green Knight - A Fairy Tale • Charlton Miner Lewis

... what I had seen that now sent my thoughts into a new channel and inspired me with the wisdom of obeying Ramiro del' Orca's behest that I should don the hateful motley and play the Fool for his diversion. It was not that I feared death; it was that I feared what the consequences of my death might be to ...
— The Shame of Motley • Raphael Sabatini

... English heart, Locksley," said the Black Knight, "and well dost judge thou art the more bound to obey my behest—I am Richard ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott

... went alone, and, finding a desirable house, engaged it, and moved into it. In a short time it was discovered that he was colored, and, at the behest of the local sentiment of the place, the landlord used his utmost endeavors to oust him, simply because he belonged to an unfashionable and unpopular race. At last he came across a landlord who was broad enough to rent him a good house, and he found a quiet resting place ...
— Iola Leroy - Shadows Uplifted • Frances E.W. Harper

... her son's behest, the old woman hobbled off to the palace, and, without being hindered, reached the courtyard, and began to mount the flight of steps leading to the royal presence chamber. At the head of the landing rows ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Various

... boy reaches the age at which he feels that he is a man, he ceases to be under paternal restraint, which even up to that age has been more or less lax. At this period he assumes as much independence as his father, but will obey any behest without understanding the propriety or the necessity of complying. As a general rule, filial relations are most cordial, and great respect is entertained for both parents, but it may be said that male children respect and love the father, while ...
— The Manbos of Mindano - Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir • John M. Garvan

... Grouch sat, outwardly radiant of countenance but privately nursing her second grievance against her slave for that he had failed to obey her behest and appear at the previous evening's dance. Around her, in various attitudes of adoration, ...
— Little Miss Grouch - A Narrative Based on the Log of Alexander Forsyth Smith's - Maiden Transatlantic Voyage • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... your ignorance. It is a nescience whereby human aspirations are cribbed within ruled lines and made to balance on the opposite side. Would you like to see me obey Mr. Mammon's behest and crib my aspirations within ...
— The Beloved Vagabond • William J. Locke

... magnitude, and akin to these in wickedness, is the sin of society against women. A sin so potent for evil, that at the behest of selfishness, greed and lust, government, church and society, with one accord and without a protest, join in denying to woman an existence of financial independence. This denial makes slaves of women, who should be noble, pure, self-poised, self-sustaining and absolutely free. But ...
— Solaris Farm - A Story of the Twentieth Century • Milan C. Edson

... down goes the humble head, and the forehead strikes on the step three times three. The head is then raised, but the eyes are still meekly lowered, as the imperial voice in thrilling accents pronounces the behest of the great master. The voice hushed, down goes the head again and acknowledges the sovereign right, and the privileged individual is allowed to withdraw. The scene described is not imaginary, but warranted by the accounts ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 12 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... the royal ear, That, though wise Dara's province, year by year, Like a great sponge, sucked wealth and plenty up, Yet, when he squeezed it at the king's behest, Some yellow drops, more rich than all the rest, Went to the filling ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... inauspicious evening took it upon him to revile and abuse his father's servant, one Moussa Isa, an African boy, as he performed divers domestic duties in the exiguous "compound" of the dwelling-place and refused to do the fat youth's behest ere completing them. ...
— Driftwood Spars - The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who - Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life • Percival Christopher Wren

... her spirit Was summoned to its rest, To all around her gathered She gave that high behest; And many followed after To seek the life she chose, Till, like a flower, in ...
— Memories of Canada and Scotland - Speeches and Verses • John Douglas Sutherland Campbell

... temper and purpose of the American public will tolerate no other view. The indifference of the American people to politics has disappeared. Any platform and any candidate not conforming to this vast social and commercial behest will go down to ...
— The Art of Public Speaking • Dale Carnagey (AKA Dale Carnegie) and J. Berg Esenwein

... down Channel at full speed and at night were abreast of the Scilly lights, driving towards the Bay of Biscay in the teeth of an Equinoctial gale. At the behest of one girl eighty men had to endure the discomfort of a storm at sea, and a great steel ship, straining and quivering, was flung into the perilous night. It seemed a misuse of power that, at a woman's whim, so many lives and so noble and costly ...
— Love, The Fiddler • Lloyd Osbourne

... shine." Love for the birds lent fame to Audubon; just as love for the bees lent fortune to Huber. Love of knowledge hived all the wisdom in the libraries; love of beauty adorned all the galleries; love of service organized all the philanthropies. To-morrow, at the behest of love, and in the interests of dear ones at home, all the wheels will begin to revolve; all the trains go out and all the ships come in. When a man of real force and worth passes upward into that high state of purity and sweet reasonableness ...
— The Investment of Influence - A Study of Social Sympathy and Service • Newell Dwight Hillis

... O Phoebus, I will recount the famous deeds of men of old, who, at the behest of King Pelias, down through the mouth of Pontus and between the Cyanean rocks, sped well-benched Argo in quest of the ...
— The Argonautica • Apollonius Rhodius

... permanent being consists of a spiritual principle. Unless that be called into action she lives but an ephemeral life. Let her pious capabilities be awakened, let the love of God become her ruling motive, let submission to his high behest, be the joy of her heart, and she enters that path, which conducts, eternally, toward ...
— The Young Maiden • A. B. (Artemas Bowers) Muzzey

... noxious charms dispelled. He heard in silence the Hidalgo's tale, Then answered in a voice that made him quail: "Son of the Church! when Abraham of old To sacrifice his only son was told, He did not pause to parley nor protest, But hastened to obey the Lord's behest. In him it was accounted righteousness; The Holy Church expects ...
— Tales of a Wayside Inn • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... had come two weeks ago, just as he was on the point of flying from Rome and the autumn fevers to the gaieties of Naples and Baiae. That was an easy escape for a youth whose only taskmasters were the Muses and who worked or played at the behest of his own mood. But his brother, Valerius, had obeyed the will of Rome, serving her, according to her need, at all seasons and in all places. Stationed this year in Asia Minor he had fallen a victim to one of the disastrous eastern fevers. And now Troy held his ashes, and never ...
— Roads from Rome • Anne C. E. Allinson

... on you my sovereign behest to furbish up your lungs and other vocal organs, as they will be wanted on ...
— Jane Eyre - an Autobiography • Charlotte Bronte

... of Kambalu Rode the great captain Alau; And he stood before the Khan, and said,— "The enemies of my lord are dead; All the Kalifs of all the West Bow and obey his least behest; The plains are dark with the mulberry-trees, The weavers are busy in Samarcand, The miners are sifting the golden sand, The divers are plunging for pearls in the seas, And peace and ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 80, June, 1864 • Various

... and they largely succeeded. But, after all, the age was against them; and people who have once desired and done great things are slow to forget them, though the censor may forbid them to be named, and the prison and the scaffold may enforce his behest. ...
— Modern Italian Poets • W. D. Howells

... heart. What tender devotion! What earnest fidelity! What brave and romantic faith! Had she breathed on some talisman, and called up some obedient genie to her aid, the spirit could not have been more loyal, nor the completion of her behest more ...
— Sybil - or the Two Nations • Benjamin Disraeli

... chains; With Hope's bright blushes warm'd the midnight air, And drove from earth the Demon of Despair. 210 Erewhile emerging from the caves of night The Friends of Man ascended into light; With soft assuasive eloquence address'd The ear of Power to stay his stern behest; At Mercy's call to stretch his arm and save His tottering victims from the gaping grave. These with sweet smiles Imagination greets, For these she opens all her treasured sweets, Strews round their couch, by Pity's hand combined, Bright flowers of ...
— The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society - A Poem, with Philosophical Notes • Erasmus Darwin

... the young nephew, however, who made the running. The entire menagerie whistled, barked, sat up on its hind legs, performed acrobatic feats and said, "Scratch poor Polly," at his discriminating behest. Finally he reached a point where he simply could not decide between a Goliath cockatoo at L22 10s. and a white-faced Douroucouli ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, February 4, 1920 • Various

... the underbrush behind their unconscious principals. Once or twice he lifted his own arm with an alert gesture in imitative energy, and looked over his shoulder at his squat little image, to note its obedience to his behest. One might have thought he had put the greater part of the fat meat in smears about his rosy cheeks and fresh baby lips, and certainly the pleated bosom of his immaculate linen suit had received a generous remembrance. ...
— The Ordeal - A Mountain Romance of Tennessee • Charles Egbert Craddock

... Are things to brood on with more ardency Than the death-day of empires. Fearfully Must such conviction come upon his head, Who, thus far, discontent, has dared to tread, Without one muse's smile, or kind behest, The path of love and poesy. But rest, In chaffing restlessness, is yet more drear Than to be crush'd, in striving to uprear 40 Love's standard on the battlements of song. So once more days and nights aid me along, Like ...
— Endymion - A Poetic Romance • John Keats

... responded the major. "I don't propose to stay out here and cool my heels in front of my sister's house at the behest of a stranger." ...
— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor

... train from out the castle drew; But Marmion stopped to bid adieu:— "Though something I might plain," he said, "Of cold respect to stranger guest, Sent hither by your king's behest, While in Tantallon's towers I stayed,— Part we in friendship from your land, And, noble earl, receive my hand." But Douglas round him drew his cloak, Folded his arms, and thus he spoke:— "My manors, halls, and bowers, shall still Be open, at my sovereign's ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... "At my behest, and by the orders of the pike, This cask of crystal earth at once must strike Upon the friendly island ...
— Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen • Alexander Chodsko

... with hasty call The gowned tribes, how graceful wouldst thou stand! So stood Cyllenius5 erst in Priam's hall, Wing-footed messenger of Jove's command, And so, Eurybates6 when he address'd To Peleus' son Atrides' proud behest. ...
— Poemata (William Cowper, trans.) • John Milton

... shaft, or any other swift thing, she was gone from the room, How she got the house-door open I cannot tell; probably it might be ajar; perhaps Warren was in the way and obeyed her behest, which would be impetuous enough. I—watching calmly from the window— saw her, in her black frock and tiny braided apron (to pinafores she had an antipathy), dart half the length of the street; and, as I was on the point of turning, and quietly announcing to Mrs. Bretton that ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... earth to moulder away to wormy corruption,—had been the one fantastic dread of the sturdy old pagan's life. And he had taken advantage of Svensen's devotion and obedience to impress on him the paramount importance of his solitary behest. ...
— Thelma • Marie Corelli

... intelligent Frenchmen was considered right, morally and legally. Nothing so flattered the national pride as the assemblage in Paris of art treasures from all nations, nothing so humiliated it as their dispersion at the behest of the conquering Allies. In the previous year a few art works had been taken from Holland and Belgium, and formal orders were given again and again by the Directory for stripping the Pope's galleries; ...
— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. I. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane

... the country, and conduct them on the spot, whereby he would have established a resident population, who would have combined fishing with the cultivation of the soil. It was a departure from this policy, and a determination, at the behest of selfish monopolists, to make the island a mere fishing-station, that postponed for many weary years the prosperity of the colony, blighting the national enterprise, and paralyzing the ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1-20 • Various

... Republicans as little monsters shun the daylight. I mention this as a collateral illustration without intending to raise a diplomat or the poor diplomacy of the world to an undeserved significance, for I bear in mind the behest, ne ...
— Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863 • Adam Gurowski

... present law, guardians are appointed at Rome by the prefect of the city, and by the praetor when the case falls within his jurisdiction; in the provinces they are appointed, after inquiry, by the governor, or by inferior magistrates at the latter's behest if the pupil's property is of no ...
— The Institutes of Justinian • Caesar Flavius Justinian

... lesson. I would no longer take my elephant anywhere and everywhere at the behest of the monkey, for monkeys have ...
— Kari the Elephant • Dhan Gopal Mukerji

... mouths we praise God, from the breast Called home betimes to rest the perfect rest, By love and joy fufilling His behest. ...
— Poems • Christina G. Rossetti

... cooking ascended from the basement kitchen, and when Jacob Asimof had entered the front door at the behest of a coloured man with white gloves he sniffed the fragrant atmosphere of the lobby like a coon dog at the base ...
— Abe and Mawruss - Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter • Montague Glass

... that the superintendent could do was to give him surreptitiously a prayer-book, bidding him perfect himself in the Catechism in view of future Confirmation. But, as emulation of his fellows and not religious zeal was the mainspring of Paul's enthusiasm, the pious behest was disregarded. Paul dived into the volume occasionally, however, ...
— The Fortunate Youth • William J. Locke

... water did in the annals of the Venetian Council of Ten. It was believed that if the bricks in its somber, dirt-grimed walls could speak, each could tell a separate story of a life deemed dangerous to the State that had gone down in night, at the behest of the ruthless Confederate authorities. It was confidently asserted that among the commoner occurrences within its confines was the stationing of a doomed prisoner against a certain bit of blood-stained, ...
— Andersonville, complete • John McElroy

... narrows at their proud behest And creeps more darkly as it deeper flows, And fitful winds swirl through the long defile Where the great ...
— The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention • Wallace Bruce

... jovial old man and the largest tenant on the estate, rose to do the Captain's behest, and sent ...
— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 1, January, 1891 • Various

... ammunition." To Fredrik himself the monarch wrote: "From Norby's letters we learn he has no intention of obeying your commands." In the same strain Gustavus addressed the Danish Cabinet, and expressed the hope that Norby was not acting under their behest. If the Cabinet's assertion can be trusted, he was not; for several of the Cabinet wrote Gustavus to keep an eye on Norby, as he was raising a large force in Bleking despite their orders to him to desist. There being little hope that Fredrik would force the pirate to obey, Gustavus ventured ...
— The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa • Paul Barron Watson

... sometimes treated as an impertinence to revive the personages of one story in another, even though it is after the example of Shakespeare, who revived Falstaff, after his death, at the behest of Queen Elizabeth. This precedent is, however, a true impertinence in calling on the very great ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge

... War was the last political episode in the life of the American Republic. From February 4, 1899, the United States accepted the political status of an Empire. Hawaii had been annexed at the behest of the Hawaiian Government; Porto Rico had been occupied as a part of the war strategy and without any protest from the Porto Ricans. The Philippines were taken against the determined opposition of the natives, who continued the struggle ...
— The American Empire • Scott Nearing

... came down on the Alderman fold, And his cohorts were gleaming with jaundice like gold, And the sheen of the spectres that own'd his behest Glimmer'd bright as the gas at a new Lord ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, November 13, 1841 • Various

... come to a speedy close. He is of a type fast vanishing through the awakening public conscience. And his career will end, I assure you, despite the fact that you, Mr. Magee, have seen fit to send our evidence scurrying through the night at the behest of a chit of a girl. I beg your pardon—I shall continue. Young Drayton, the new county prosecutor, was several years back a favorite pupil of mine. After he left law school he fell under the spell of the picturesque ...
— Seven Keys to Baldpate • Earl Derr Biggers

... seemed to have grown dim—and fulfilled his wife's behest. Then he began to roam about the garden, gazing from a distance at the pavilion, around which the bustle of packing was already beginning. Men were carrying out chests, lading horses ... but the Malay was not among them. An irresistible feeling drew Fabio to gaze once more on what was going on ...
— A Reckless Character - And Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev

... who never bent his wit To make the pencil trace Asaka's[163] line Spell out one letter of the book divine? In vain, in vain his sire's behest he hears:— Nought may he do but ...
— Japanese Literature - Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical - Poetry and Drama of Japan • Various

... this night insurrection was the transfer of all authority to new hands. Those who the day before had been stigmatized with the impurity of their blood, were now the governing power, who, under the forms of law, were to carry into effect the behest of the successful insurgents. Neither the sight of the ruins of the night before, nor bales of merchandise strewed about among corpses and spattered with blood, could move the new masters of the city to pity the fallen condition of a class ...
— Mexico and its Religion • Robert A. Wilson

... thou to defeat the eternal laws of life and death? Wouldst cheat the mysterious Issus, Goddess of Death, of her just dues? Did not her mighty messenger, the ancient Iss, bear you upon her leaden bosom at your own behest to ...
— The Gods of Mars • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... universal glory thrilled me only as a sensuous chord of color, but in the dark corner consecrated to the worship of our God, my soul expanded, as if a holy finger touched it, and I fell on my knees, and prayed? Each of us comes into this world dowered with the behest to make desperate war against that indissoluble 'Triple Alliance, the World, the Flesh and the Devil,' and needing all the auxiliaries possible, I resort to conscription wherever I can recruit. Since I am two thousand years too young to set up a statue ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson

... message was delivered by its bearer. The chaplain was an awkward, timid creature, who had heard stories enough of Wildairs Hall and its master to undertake his mission with a quaking soul. To have refused to obey any behest of his patron would have cost him his living, and knowing this beyond a doubt, he was forced to gird up his loins and gather together all the little courage he could muster to beard the ...
— A Lady of Quality • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... we extol and magnify the quality of appreciation, it is well to note that it cannot be superinduced by any imperial mandate nor does it spring into being at the behest of didacticism. It can be caught but not taught. Indeed, it is worthy of general observation that the choice things which young people receive from the schools, colleges, and normal schools are caught and ...
— The Reconstructed School • Francis B. Pearson

... him touched me now. I was glad to feel that his money had never been a lure to me; it did not matter whether his estate was great or small, I could, at least, ease my conscience by obeying the behest of the old man whose name I bore, and whose interest in the finer things of life and art had given him ...
— The House of a Thousand Candles • Meredith Nicholson

... awoke, and looked out of the window, the mountain had disappeared. The young man hastened full of joy to the king, and told him that his behest was fulfilled, and, whether the king liked it or not, he had to keep to his word, and ...
— Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm • Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm

... therein offereth him, his tribulation is wholesome. And it shall be full comforting to remember that God by this tribulation calleth him and biddeth him come home, out of the country of sin that he was bred and brought up so long in, and come into the land of behest that floweth milk and honey. And then if he follow this calling, as many a one full well doth, joyful shall his sorrow be. And glad shall he be to change his life, to leave his wanton pleasures and do penance for his sins, bestowing his ...
— Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation - With Modifications To Obsolete Language By Monica Stevens • Thomas More

... the maiden carried it to the parlour, which she entered after knocking, in response to Washington's behest. The general looked up from the paper he was conning and instantly smiled a recognition ...
— Janice Meredith • Paul Leicester Ford

... lady asks to see you! She is robed like any nun and yet she spoke Like a great lady—one that is used to rule More than obey; and on her breast I saw A ruby smouldering like a secret fire Beneath her cloak. She bade me say she came On Robin Hood's behest. ...
— Collected Poems - Volume Two (of 2) • Alfred Noyes

... imprisoned, and some of them even executed because of their devotion to the truth, Melanchthon was unwilling to expose himself to the anger of the Emperor. And before long his fear to confess and his refusal to give public testimony to the truth was followed by open denial. At the behest of Elector Maurice he consented to elaborate, as a substitute for the Augsburg Interim, a compromise document—the ...
— Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church • Friedrich Bente

... My faithful heart is my only charm, But my good broadsword is keen, And love for the princess nerves my arm With the strength of ten, I ween. Come weal, come woe, no knight can fail Who goes at Love's behest. Long ere one moon shall wax and wane, I shall be back from my quest. I have only to find the South Wind's flute. In the Land of Summer it lies. It can awaken the echoes mute, With answering replies. And it ...
— The Little Colonel's Hero • Annie Fellows Johnston

... loveth thee with exceeding love; Allah upon thee, deal kindly with him, for he is of the great ones of mankind and of the sons of the kings, and his father ruleth over the land of Kabul and his reign compasseth a mighty empire.' Quoth she, 'I hear and I obey thy behest'; and, kissing the Shaykh's hands stood before him in respect. Quoth he, 'If thou say sooth, swear to me by Allah that thou wilt never betray him, what while thou abidest in the bonds of life.' So she swore a great oath that she would ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... thing a piece of presumption upon the part of his extraordinary acquaintance. Why should he run about London at the behest of Severac Bablon? ...
— The Sins of Severac Bablon • Sax Rohmer

... force:—and of this force, physical courage was not a determining element, because it was just as evident in the conquered as in the conquerors. The determining element was strategy that (under the behest of policy) prepared the military and naval forces in material and personnel before they were used, and directed their operations, ...
— The Navy as a Fighting Machine • Bradley A. Fiske

... Count Walter then. "Take of our Franks a thousand men; Sweep the heights and the passes clear, That the Emperor's host may have nought to fear." "I go," said Walter, "at your behest," And a thousand Franks around him pressed. They ranged the heights and passes through, Nor for evil tidings backward drew, Until seven hundred swords outflew. The Lord of Belferna's land, that day, King Almaris met him in ...
— The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga - With Introductions And Notes • Various

... of the brotherhood of those who sought to make the world better and happier and more just. In France it found expression in an outburst of patriotism and national sentiment. No longer did mercenaries fight at the behest of despots for dynastic aggrandizement; henceforth a nation in arms was prepared to do battle under the glorious banner of "fraternity" in defense of whatever it believed to be for ...
— A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. • Carlton J. H. Hayes

... origin he chanted, All his spells he sang in order, At the will of the Creator, At behest of the Almighty, How himself the air he fashioned, And from air the water parted, And the earth was formed from water, And from earth ...
— Kalevala, Volume I (of 2) - The Land of the Heroes • Anonymous

... equable state of his excellency's temper, but because he had a signal unpleasantness in store, and would not hazard their resignation. They had taken advantage of an imperial ukase to enter the service of the Russian-American Company temporarily, and they knew that if they evaded any behest of Rezanov's their adventurous life in the Pacific would be over. Therefore, although they resented his implacable will, they pulled with him in outward amity; and indeed there were few of the Juno's human freight that did not look back ...
— Rezanov • Gertrude Atherton

... begged Draper to bring it to me at once. She thought it had fluttered out of my window, and went down smilingly to fulfil my behest. ...
— Uncle Max • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... garrison at the Cape of Good Hope to control the passage to the Indies, she also maintains on the Bahamas and the Bermudas, in her well-equipped garrisons, vigilant sentinels whose eyes are ever watching the western continent in obedience to the royal behest; and in the magnificent island of Jamaica she has established, and maintained at enormous expense, a fortified and well-garrisoned naval station, which practically controls the Caribbean sea, the Gulf of ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1 • Various

... dwarf was gone, Charming kicked off his shoes and stepped into the magic boots; then he seized the sword and the cloak and darted off on his lady's behest. He had barely gone a hundred paces before a sudden idea came to him, and ...
— Happy Days • Alan Alexander Milne

... many a gallant slave, 20 Apparelled as becomes the brave, Awaiting each his Lord's behest To guide his steps, or guard his rest, Old Giaffir sate in his Divan: Deep thought was in his aged eye; And though the face of Mussulman Not oft betrays to standers by The mind within, well skilled to hide All but unconquerable pride, His pensive cheek and pondering ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron

... a little page, Who waits for Portia's kind behest, Mine is the part upon this stage To tell the plot ...
— The Story of My Life - Recollections and Reflections • Ellen Terry

... view'd, and fury fired his breast— And to the winds the chieftain cast his monarch's high behest. He gave the word, that angry lord—"War, war unto the death!" Then many a scimitar flash'd ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 54, No. 338, December 1843 • Various

... were enough!" said the wind. "My master is the sun. I run my race at his behest. When he shines really strong anywhere, than I go up with the warm air and fetch cold air from somewhere else and fly with it along the earth. Whether it be east or west does ...
— The Old Willow Tree and Other Stories • Carl Ewald

... meek and down-trodden martyr was unbelievable,—and the way she said it! Not even Pat Murphy, the coal-wagon driver, with all his years of practice, could have said it with greater distinctness,—not even Pat who possessed the masculine right to amplify the behest with expletives not supposed to be uttered except in the ...
— Anderson Crow, Detective • George Barr McCutcheon

... applauded vehemently, and cried, "Bravo!" and "Encore!" and ended in convincing us of the reality of his delight, by pressing his brandy-flask into the hands of the performer, and urging him to "drink it all, every drop, and then give us another!" Our mountain Paganini, I fear, interpreted the behest too literally; or else H.'s enthusiasm never afterwards rose to so high a pitch; at any rate, he was never known to manifest it in so expansive ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... face—he had grown animated, a sentient living instead of a corpse alive. It was very hard that this little interval of life, these stray gleams of gladness should be denied to the poor old creature, at the behest of James Steadman. ...
— Phantom Fortune, A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... riveted by the knowledge of so many splendid virtues, d'Arthez obeyed this behest on the following day and went to see Madame d'Espard, who received him with charming coquetry. The marquise took very good care not to say a single word to him about the princess, but she asked him to dinner on ...
— The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan • Honore de Balzac

... temper rising. He had been somewhat languidly drifting with events for the last fortnight, and letting May's fair looks and radiant nature obliterate the rather importunate pressure of the Mingott claims. But this behest of old Mrs. Mingott's roused him to a sense of what the clan thought they had the right to exact from a prospective son-in-law; and ...
— The Age of Innocence • Edith Wharton

... days I am become the slave of quack doctors and newspapers. I am driven from pillar to post and hurried up and down, sometimes with stencil-plate and paste-brush to defile the fences with cabalistic legends, and sometimes in grotesque and extravagant character at the behest of some driving journal. I attended to that Ocean Bank robbery some weeks ago, when I was hardly rested from finishing up the pow-wow about the completion of the Pacific Railroad; immediately I was spirited off to do an atrocious, murder for the benefit of the New York papers; ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... attitude adopted by the coroner surprised and gratified the lawyer. Evidently here was a conscientious official who was not to be precipitated into hasty action at the behest of ...
— The Substitute Prisoner • Max Marcin

... man bethought himself of the last behest of the dead woman. "I go to the village, Mota," he said hoarsely, and without another word left the hut and set ...
— Old Mission Stories of California • Charles Franklin Carter

... in reality, directed by the railroad and other corporations. United States judges, at the behest of the railroad companies (which had caused them to be appointed to the Bench), issued extraordinary, unprecedented injunctions against the strikers. These injunctions even prevented the strikers from persuading fellow employees to quit work. So utterly lacking any ...
— History of the Great American Fortunes, Vol. I - Conditions in Settlement and Colonial Times • Myers Gustavus

... Ministers who carried out the Sovereign's behest. There was "Jemmy Twitcher," as Lord Sandwich was called. This man was so utterly bad, that in later life he never cared to conceal his infamies, because he knew that his character could not possibly be worse blackened. Sandwich belonged to ...
— Side Lights • James Runciman

... ago, at the behest of a fanatical priest or two, forsook all else and spent a generation in journeying to Palestine and trying to get a certain ...
— The Subterranean Brotherhood • Julian Hawthorne

... inhabitants of the various villages situated on its banks, and many were the devices employed to extort the uttermost farthing from the unfortunate people, who were quite incapable of offering any resistance because the warlike Kyan tribe was ever ready at hand to sweep down upon them at the behest of their Brunai oppressors. The system of dagang sera (forced trade) I have already explained. Some of the other devices I will now enumerate. Chukei basoh batis, or the tax of washing feet, a contribution, varying in amount at the sweet will of the imposer, levied when ...
— British Borneo - Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan, and North Borneo • W. H. Treacher

... stand so straight, So equipoised, that others' fate Seems to depend on their behest; And useless all our every quest To gain perfection or renown, Unless we touch the flowing gown Of these high-priests, whose shadows fall Within ...
— Gleams of Sunshine - Optimistic Poems • Joseph Horatio Chant

... Bade thee here a sad farewell; Many past since thou didst die, Since I heard thy funeral knell. Thou didst go when thou wast young; Scarcely hadst thou oped thine eyes To the world, and it had flung Its bright sunshine from the skies, Ere thy Maker called for thee, Thou obeyed his high behest; Then I mourned, yet knew thou 'dst be Throned on high among the blest. Gently thou didst fold thy wing, Gently thou didst sink in sleep; Birds their evening songs did sing, And the evening shades did creep Through ...
— Town and Country, or, Life at Home and Abroad • John S. Adams



Words linked to "Behest" :   bid, command, dictation, bidding



Copyright © 2024 Free Translator.org