"Loosen" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... hard-hearted strangers. But he was as hard-headed as they were hard-hearted. The sack made frequent journeys to the scales, followed solicitously each time by Kink Mitchell's eyes, and still Ans Handerson did not loosen up. In his pale blue eyes, as in summer seas, immortal dreams swam up and burned, but the swimming and the burning were due to the tales of gold and prospect pans he heard, rather than to the whisky he slid ...
— The Faith of Men • Jack London
... meditations. He would have liked to free Les Jardies from its mortgage and keep the place as a summer resort, while renting a snug mansion in the city during the winter; but the two abodes were hardly within his means, unless Eve would loosen her purse-strings. "I will not sell it," he informed her, referring to his "Folly"; "it was built with my blood and brains. I will stick to it—if I cannot dispose of it advantageously," he finished up with, inconsequently. And still she made no sign; or, rather ...
— Balzac • Frederick Lawton
... century, within the Clearwell Chapel of Newland Church, gives a curious representation of the iron-miner of that period equipped for his work. It represents him as wearing a cap, holding a candlestick between his teeth, handling a small mattock with which to loosen, as occasion required, the fine mineral earth lodged in the cavity within which he worked, or else to detach the metallic incrustations lining its sides, bearing a light wooden mine-hod on his back, suspended by a shoulderstrap, and clothed in a thick flannel jacket, ...
— The Forest of Dean - An Historical and Descriptive Account • H. G. Nicholls
... all, dear child," said Andrew. He tried to loosen her little, clinging hand from his arm. "Come, let's go back to the house," he said. "Don't you mind anything about it. Sometimes father gets ...
— The Portion of Labor • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... walls. Helbeck noticed the slenderness of her arms, and the prettiness of her little white neck, then the freedom of her quick gesture as she went up to the elder lady and with a certain peremptoriness began to loosen ...
— Helbeck of Bannisdale, Vol. I. • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... at Grand Isle she began to loosen a little the mantle of reserve that had always enveloped her. There may have been—there must have been—influences, both subtle and apparent, working in their several ways to induce her to do this; but the most obvious ...
— The Awakening and Selected Short Stories • Kate Chopin
... expedients may easily loosen the threads that have begun to get tied, foster national hate, arouse mutual distrust and suspicion, and lead to results the reverse of those aimed at. Assimilative measures adopted by the Government, therefore, should be thought out carefully ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 21 - The Recent Days (1910-1914) • Charles F. Horne, Editor
... pirate, whether willingly or unwillingly, he would assuredly be executed if he was caught, we should have the sea swarming with pirates. Now, lad, you know how this boom was fastened; can you suggest any way that we could get over it or loosen it ...
— The Bravest of the Brave - or, with Peterborough in Spain • G. A. Henty
... apart, as spoken of before. This is done so that it may be rigid whilst I take one-inch rasp 47, and proceed to level all round the wood to about five-eighths of an inch and five-thirty-seconds of an inch deep. When I get to the ends of the back I loosen the wood, and use the file more freely at the end of the bench. But this is a matter left entirely to the workman. When this is nicely done, I wet a sponge and damp all I have gone over, surface and edge alike, and let it thoroughly dry, and when it is so, I employ medium cut file 63, ...
— Violin Making - 'The Strad' Library, No. IX. • Walter H. Mayson
... on the tire with valve down; loosen all the lugs; insert thin edge of spring-leaf between rim and tire, breaking the cement and partially freeing tire; insert spring-leaf farther at a point just about opposite valve and pry tire free from rim, holding and working it free by pushing ...
— Two Thousand Miles On An Automobile • Arthur Jerome Eddy
... loved life so well? What had led him into this?... There had been a battle, but neither army had been cognizant of it. He endeavored to move his injured arm, and found it bereft of locomotion. The tendons had been cut. And he could not loosen his grip on the saber which he held in his right hand. The bridle rein ...
— The Puppet Crown • Harold MacGrath
... an' him an' me. The three o' us are a' goin' to work thegither. If he could have gotten yin sooner, I'd hae been doon a month syne. But he's aye been waitin' to get a place that wad suit us a'," he said, volunteering this information to see if it would loosen her tongue to express the regret ...
— The Underworld - The Story of Robert Sinclair, Miner • James C. Welsh
... think of me, Henry?" she whispered, pulling at his grasp, which grew firmer as she tried to loosen it. "I"—and then she raised her eyes, which were suffused with tears. "Oh! it seems such horrid waste for you to be sick with grief for Sabine, who is happy now—and that only ...
— The Man and the Moment • Elinor Glyn
... much whether any one could get along this way, Saxe," said Dale, as he held the rope for his young companion to slide down, afterwards doubling it for his own use, so as to have a great loop round a block to enable him to loosen one end ...
— The Crystal Hunters - A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps • George Manville Fenn
... the neck skin long enough to fasten under the back. Make a straight cut from 1/2 inch below the tip of the breastbone to the vent. Cut around the vent. Slip fingers in carefully around and fully loosen the entrails. Carefully draw out the entrails. The lungs, lying in the cavities under the breast, and the kidneys, in the hollow near the end of the backbone, must be taken out separately. Remove the oil sack and wash ...
— Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts • Girl Scouts
... shall be in the ages to come?" replied Miss Burton, speaking rapidly. "This is the situation:—I am clinging to some hope, something that I believe will be truth which sustains me, and the only force of the skeptic's words is to loosen my grasp. No better support is given, no new hope inspired. Believe me," she concluded passionately, "I would rather die a thousand deaths by torture than lose my faith that there is a God who will bring order out of this chaos of broken, thwarted lives, of which the world is full, and that those ...
— A Face Illumined • E. P. Roe
... Priam! I had once Brave sons in Troy, and now I cannot say That one is left me. Fifty children had I, When the Greeks came; nineteen were of one womb; The rest my women bore me in my house. The knees of many of these fierce Mars has loosen'd; And he who had no peer, Troy's prop and theirs, Him hast thou kill'd now, fighting for his country, Hector; and for his sake am I come here To ransom him, bringing a countless ransom. But thou, Achilles, fear the gods, and think Of thine own father, and have mercy ...
— English Critical Essays - Nineteenth Century • Various
... I've thought of something. They say horses will find their own way home if you let them. Loosen the reins, dear." ...
— The Highgrader • William MacLeod Raine
... ascertained the total amount—eighty-five thousand francs, to them an enormous sum—they began to chat. And their conversation naturally turned upon their future, and they spoke of their marriage, although there had never been any previous mention of love between them. But this heap of money seemed to loosen their tongues. They had gradually seated themselves further back on the bed, leaning against the wall, beneath the white muslin curtains; and as they talked together, their hands, playing with the heap of silver between ...
— The Fat and the Thin • Emile Zola
... beginning of November the enemy's hold had begun to loosen in the Argonne and along the Vosges, and one day we were sent off to the East with a couple of ambulances. Of course we had to have military chauffeurs, and the one attached to my ambulance happened to be a fellow I knew. The day before we started, in talking over our route with him, ...
— Coming Home - 1916 • Edith Wharton
... "I—I'll loosen you all in lust a second," he said, as he bent over to pick at the knot of the rope around his legs. His own voice sounded ...
— Tom Swift and his Aerial Warship - or, The Naval Terror of the Seas • Victor Appleton
... same purpose. I don't know what effect their emissaries are having among the ignorant, but the merchant class has about got to the point of asking foreign intervention to straighten things out—first to loosen the clutch of Japan, and then, or at the same time, for it's the two sides of the same thing, overthrow the corrupt military clique that now governs China and sells it out. It's a wonderful job for a League of Nations—if only by any chance ...
— Letters from China and Japan • John Dewey
... "absolute," philosophy. A beautiful fragment of this period remains, describing a spring excursion to the Brocken. His excitement still vibrates in it. Love, all joyful states [72] of mind, are self-expressive: they loosen the tongue, they fill the thoughts with sensuous images, they harmonise one with the world of sight. We hear of the "rich graciousness and courtesy" of Coleridge's manner, of the white and delicate skin, the abundant black hair, the full, almost ...
— Appreciations, with an Essay on Style • Walter Horatio Pater
... that heavenly arch erected over our heads should loosen and dissolve itself; ... if the Moon should wander from her beaten ...
— Inspiration and Interpretation - Seven Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford • John Burgon
... informed. This meaning is probably connected with the primary one of 'loosen,' 'set free,' through the idea of setting free from perplexity. 'Resolve' continued to be used in the sense of 'inform' and 'answer' until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Shakespeare uses the word in the three main senses of ...
— The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar • William Shakespeare
... out just as it reached its climax and dwindled away, and the ship instead of taking the usual plunge went steadily. The monotonous order of plunging and rising, roaring and relaxing, was interfered with, and every one at table looked up and felt something loosen within them. The strain was slackened and human feelings began to peep again, as they do when daylight shows at the end ...
— The Voyage Out • Virginia Woolf
... he felt desperately his powerlessness to loosen the coils that were closing round him, fetters forged of his own red blood, his own ...
— Dangerous Days • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... far behind his fellows. Spake the hostess of Pohyola: "Hie ye hither, men and heroes, Haste, ye watchers, to the stables, There unhitch the suitor's stallion, Lower well the racer's breast-plate, There undo the straps and buckles, Loosen well the shafts and traces, And conduct the suitor hither, Give my son-in-law good welcome!" Ilmarinen turned his racer Into Louhi's yard and stables, And descended from his snow-sledge. Spake the hostess of Pohyola: "Come, thou servant of my bidding, Best of all my trusted servants, Take ...
— The Kalevala (complete) • John Martin Crawford, trans.
... beach. Turning around she saw, at some little distance, a young woman most scantily clad, clinging desperately to a bundle which a large, coarse man was trying to wrench from her. The wretch, finding that he could not loosen her hold, struck her in the face with such force that she fell stunned upon the ground, and the bundle flew out of her hand. He eagerly snatched it up, believing it to contain jewelry. Before he could escape he was confronted ...
— Barriers Burned Away • E. P. Roe
... her loosen'd hair the night-breeze play'd, And sent it waving wildly o'er her breast, Until the snowy lawn with golden braid In soft and waving traceries seemed drest. And as she sped along a muffled shade Still at her side o'er tombs and grasses ...
— Eidolon - The Course of a Soul and Other Poems • Walter R. Cassels
... Guards on the 27th, and Loos remained firmly in our hands; but a great opportunity had been lost, and the great stroke of the 15th Division had not been turned into a great advance. Lens had been almost in our grasp, and with it a lever to loosen the German hold on Lille (see ...
— A Short History of the Great War • A.F. Pollard
... for the woman," he added more cheerfully, "the accident would not be so bad either. I am cramped by long boat service, and would welcome a stiff tramp to loosen out the joints ...
— Prisoners of Chance - The Story of What Befell Geoffrey Benteen, Borderman, - through His Love for a Lady of France • Randall Parrish
... his madness. "Touch me not, carles, touch me not; ye think me spent and weak, but, by Thor! if ye touch my hair, I will loosen the knees of some. Gudruda alone shall shear my hair: I have sworn and I will keep the oath that I once broke. Give me snow! snow! my throat burns! Heap snow on my head, I bid you. Ye will not? Ye mock me, thinking me weak! Where, then, is Whitefire?—I have ...
— Eric Brighteyes • H. Rider Haggard
... instinct of self-advancement was already attaching himself to Maurice as to the wheels of the chariot going steadily up the hill, was not indisposed to loosen his hold upon the man through whose friendship he had first risen, and whose power was now perhaps on the decline. Moreover, events had now caused him to hate the French government with much fervour. With ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... hope soon to enable the poor fellows to loosen their belts, and fill their stomachs till they are as tight as a drum. Saddle the horses, Bremen. Omrah, you ride my spare horse and carry my ...
— The Mission • Frederick Marryat
... "Shall I loosen them? Perhaps they are too tight. There is nothing so irritating to one as the sensation of ...
— Snow-Bound at Eagle's • Bret Harte
... had to dig at random. The winter set in before one-tenth of the scene of promise had been explored. The ground became too frozen and the nights too cold for the labors of the spade. No sooner, however, did the returning warmth of spring loosen the soil, and the small frogs begin to pipe in the meadows, but Wolfert resumed his labors with renovated zeal. Still, however, the hours of industry were reversed. Instead of working cheerily all day, planting and setting out his ...
— Tales of a Traveller • Washington Irving
... as a farmer butchering hogs must scald the carcasses at a certain temperature. If the farmer's water is too hot it will set the hair, that is, fix the bristles so they will never come out; if the water is not hot enough it will fail to loosen the bristles. So the farmer has to be an expert, and when the water in his barrel is just hot enough, he souses the porker in it, holding it in the hot bath the right length of time, then pulling it out and scraping off the hair. Farmers learned this art by experience long before ...
— The Iron Puddler • James J. Davis
... assistance. It was Crazy Laura, the contents of her arms now showing in the light of the flames as they licked every window of the upper portion of the house,—five heavy, sheepskin-bound books of the ledger type, wrapped tight in a grasp that not even Harry could loosen. ...
— The Cross-Cut • Courtney Ryley Cooper
... transgression, and give an abstract of their downward progress for approval and encouragement. These folk form a freemasonry of their own. An oath is the shibboleth of their sinister fellowship. Once they hear a man swear, it is wonderful how their tongues loosen and their bashful spirits take enlargement under the consciousness of brotherhood. There is no folly, no pardoning warmth of temper about them; they are as steady-going and systematic in their own way as the ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XXII (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... who had the Memoirs[3] supposed to have thrown light on the mystery, in the full knowledge of Dr. Lushington's judgment and all the gossip of the day, professes to believe that "the causes of disunion did not differ from those that loosen the links of most such marriages," and writes several pages on the trite theme that great genius is incompatible with domestic happiness. Negative instances abound to modify this sweeping generalization; but there is a kind of ...
— Byron • John Nichol
... merely fade: lose their complexions, the brightness of their eyes and hair. Others grow heavy, solid; stout or flabby; the muscles of the face and neck loosen and sag, the features alter. I seemed slowly to dry up—wither. There was no flesh to hang or loose skin to wrinkle, but it seemed to me that I had ten thousand lines. I thought it a horrid fate. I could not know that Nature, meaning to be cruel, had given ...
— Black Oxen • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
... in speculation, from which he was aroused by the door being softly opened and Joan coming in. "Why, Adam, I thought to find 'ee in bed," she said. "Come, now, you must be dreadful tired." Then, sitting down to loosen her hood, she added with a sigh, "I stayed down there so long as I could, till I saw 'twasn't no good, so I comed away home and left 'em. 'Tis best way, ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880 • Various
... bodies.... But, oh, Lord! it ain't your fault. I shouldn't have said anything. There's lots of wives like you. More 'n one man's admitted his wife was like that, when he's had a couple drinks under his belt to loosen his tongue. You're not to blame, but— I'm sorry.... Don't mind my grouch when I came in. I was so hot, and I'd been worrying and wanted to blame things onto somebody.... Don't wait for me at dinner. If I ain't here by seven, go ahead and ...
— The Job - An American Novel • Sinclair Lewis
... axe he plies, loud strokes resound: Till dragg'd with ropes, and fell'd with many a wound, The loosen'd tree comes rushing to ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... pan with cold water and drain well. Turn in the cooked mixture and set in a cool place for twelve hours to become firm. Then loosen from the pan and remove. Turn on the table and cut into blocks. Roll in granulated sugar ...
— Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book - Numerous New Recipes Based on Present Economic Conditions • Mary A. Wilson
... her nothing more of country refreshment than the old walks on the Green and an occasional ride or walk on the opposite shore of one or the other of the rivers that bordered the city. Business held him fast, with a grip that he must not loosen; though he saw and knew that his little sister's face grew daily more thin and pale, and that her slight frame was slighter and slighter. His arm had less and less to do, even though her need called for more. He felt as if she was slipping ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner
... heard Jack's cry, and uttered a half-articulate answer. In an instant the man was at his side, and had quickly gagged him. This had the further effect of awakening the unfortunate lad; and he struggled to loosen his bonds, but they were too strongly tied. He endeavored to answer Jack, but only a meaningless mumble resulted, for ...
— Lost on the Moon - or In Quest Of The Field of Diamonds • Roy Rockwood
... raid of General Early—penetrating to the gates of the Capital and with possible capabilities of even entering them—can hardly be considered an organized scheme of invasion. It was rather the spasmodic effort by a sharp, hard blow to loosen the tightening and death-dealing grip upon our throat, and give us time for one long, deep breath before the final ...
— Four Years in Rebel Capitals - An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death • T. C. DeLeon
... how on the fifth day he had put their kings in bonds. "And they have three fierce hounds in a chain ready to hunt me," he said. "Did you take the heads off those three kings?" said Grania, "I did not," said Diarmuid, "for there is no man of the heroes of Ireland can loosen those bonds but four only, Oisin, son of Finn, and Osgar, son of Oisin, and Lugaidh's Son of the Strong Hand, and Conan, son of Morna; and I know well," he said, "none of those four will do it. But all the same, it is short till Finn will get news of them, and it is ...
— Gods and Fighting Men • Lady I. A. Gregory
... said, "loosen the hand out of the little boy's. The woman is sleeping her eternal sleep, she will nevermore awaken on this earth. She must have died suddenly from heart failure, while you ...
— Erick and Sally • Johanna Spyri
... the generosity of the man as well as ever Posh had cause to know it. FitzGerald may not have opened his heart to his Woodbridge acquaintance so freely as he did to Posh, but he was always ready to loosen his purse-strings. ...
— Edward FitzGerald and "Posh" - "Herring Merchants" • James Blyth
... high pinnacle, when they have felt The sunshine for a while, and downward go Like lauwine loosen'd from ...
— Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber - Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge • James Aitken Wylie
... proceeded to ransack the chateau from cellar to garret. They opened all closets and doors, and sounded the walls; until five o'clock they were absolute masters of the place. By that time the valet had managed to loosen with his teeth the rope that bound Violette. Violette, able then to get the gag from his mouth, began to shout for help. Hearing the shouts the five men withdrew to the gardens, where they mounted horses closely resembling ...
— An Historical Mystery • Honore de Balzac
... workmen frequently pound on the terminals to loosen the cable lugs, or pry on them sufficiently to break off the battery terminals. If the terminals and lugs are kept properly greased, they will come apart easily. A pair of terminal tongs is a very convenient tool. ...
— The Automobile Storage Battery - Its Care And Repair • O. A. Witte
... instance, which curiosity leads one to examine in spite of the aversion it raises. The poor thing couldn't bear that; she grew white and red in rapid succession, and, while tears beaded her lashes, bent the strength of her small fingers to loosen the firm clutch of Catherine; and perceiving that as fast as she raised one finger off her arm another closed down, and she could not remove the whole together, she began to make use of her nails; and their sharpness ...
— Wuthering Heights • Emily Bronte
... creatures, unto whom, within this hour, I would not have vouchsafed a quarter-look, Or piece of face! By you that fools call gods, Hang all the sky with your prodigious signs, Fill earth with monsters, drop the scorpion down, Out of the zodiac, or the fiercer lion, Shake off the loosen'd globe from her long hinge, Roll all the world in darkness, and let loose The enraged winds to turn up groves and towns! When I do fear again, let me be struck With forked fire, and unpitied die: Who fears, is worthy ...
— Sejanus: His Fall • Ben Jonson
... side at the same height. The trap is now set; and woe to the unlucky quadruped that dares make too free with that string! A very slight pressure from either side is equally liable to slip the string from the notch, or loosen the peg from the ground; and the result is the same in either case,—down comes the weighted harpoon, carrying death and destruction to ...
— Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making • William Hamilton Gibson
... off through the trees. To loosen the tight, aching muscles of his throat he began to sing—old Irish songs with a wail and a swing to them. He had taken no certain direction, for he only wished to be alone and far away from the other two; but after a time he realized that he was on the side of the central hill to which ...
— Harrigan • Max Brand
... "There, senor, loosen your fingers. I am not escaping. I am returning to my cell. But I had to make the other two think that I ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle
... many roots, which are eaten by the natives. It is commonly the office of the women to dig for roots, for which purpose they carry a long pointed stick to loosen the earth, and that is afterwards scooped up by the fingers of the left hand. Their withered arms and hands, covered with earth by digging and scraping after food, resemble, as they advance in years, the limbs and claws of a quadruped more than those of a human being. In stiff soils, this ...
— Australia, its history and present condition • William Pridden
... save Schneider, and I did. The honor of Naapu was nothing to me; and by dint of almost embracing him, I made myself a kind of absorbent for his worst breaks. It was not a pleasant hour for me before the rest began to loosen up. ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1921 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... up the stairs. Passing Mitchell's room, he half paused at the door. Should he wake him and explain the situation? He decided against it. The child's condition would only loosen the man's pent-up wrath in the presence of the physician and perhaps delay the examination. He went back to the nursery, and, lifting Dick in his arms, he bore him into his own room, which was cooler. He ...
— The Desired Woman • Will N. Harben
... could hardly stand another dozen so soon. And the chaplain of the frigate, when dining with the Honourable Stanley, would often sigh and shake his head and agree with the captain that the proposed abolition of flogging in the British Navy would do much to destroy its discipline and loosen the feelings of personal attachment between officers and men, and then murmur something complimentary about his Majesty's ship Pleiades being one of the very few ships in the Service whose captain ...
— The Ebbing Of The Tide - South Sea Stories - 1896 • Louis Becke
... as Stephen Strong was concerned, the order was superfluous, for suddenly his face flushed, then turned a dreadful ashen grey, and down he sank upon the floor. As I leant over him and began to loosen his collar, I heard the Conservative agent ...
— Doctor Therne • H. Rider Haggard
... missed their footing, and my heart ceased beating as we plunged toward instant death among the tangled deadwood beneath. But on both occasions those lithe, powerful tails reached out and found sustaining branches, nor did either of the creatures loosen their grasp upon me. In fact, it seemed that the incidents were of no greater moment to them than would be the stubbing of one's toe at a street crossing in the outer world—they but laughed uproariously and ...
— At the Earth's Core • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... precipice of many hundred feet is often found on one side, and perpendicular rocks on the other, while the path is glazed with frozen snow or ice. In many places the path is overhung with huge masses of frozen snow, which occasionally loosen and fall, when the dreadful storms peculiar to these regions suddenly come on, and form an insurmountable barrier, or sweep away or bury the unfortunate traveller. Should he escape these dangers, the path is now become trackless, and he wanders amid the dreary solitudes until night overtakes ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt
... bitterly, "there's plenty fellers in the city which year in and year out composes chamber music and symphonic music which they couldn't themselves make ten dollars a week; and, when it comes right down to it, none of them millionaires would loosen up to such new beginners for even five hundred dollars to help them get ...
— Elkan Lubliner, American • Montague Glass
... opened the subject, by placing the amount of the ransom offered, and the professions of peace with which the strangers came, in the fairest light before his auditors. It is not usual for the American savage to loosen his hold easily, on one naturalized in his tribe. But the meek air and noble confidence of Content touched the latent qualities of those generous though fierce children of the woods. The girl was sent for, that she might stand in the ...
— The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish • James Fenimore Cooper
... the white curtains were drawn back; and in order to quiet her broken and disjointed thoughts, she began to count the leaves as they fell, one by one, turning softly at the stem, and then floating out into the darkness beyond. "One. Two. How long that leaf takes to loosen. He is better. The doctor certainly thought that he was better. If he only gets well. O God, let him get well, and I will serve you all my life! Three—four—five—For twenty-four hours we thought you would slip through our fingers. ...
— Virginia • Ellen Glasgow
... fence where he waited for some player to come and fall on the ball, which was fairly hidden in a ditch covered over with branches. Butler tells to this day of the amusing sight as he beheld first one pair of hands grasping the top of the fence; one hand would loosen, then the other; then another set of hands would appear. Heads were bobbing up and down and disappearing one after the other. The crowd now became interested and showed their partiality, and with the assistance of some of the spectators a Tech player made his way over ...
— Football Days - Memories of the Game and of the Men behind the Ball • William H. Edwards
... saddle horse in the stable for feeding or rest always loosen the girth and throw the ...
— Outdoor Sports and Games • Claude H. Miller
... scale he was completely done for, and, turning quite reckless of the consequences, he let the scale containing duty fly up into the air, and jumped into the other with his cousins, and away they ran to loosen Dick. But this was easier said than done, for Dick could see at a glance that there was mischief afoot, and nearly ran mad with delight: he barked, he leaped, he tore at his chain, he tugged so that Harry could not unbuckle his collar; and when at last it was dragged over his head, turning his ears ...
— Hollowdell Grange - Holiday Hours in a Country Home • George Manville Fenn
... are so arranged as to set in vibration and loosen the atmosphere, that keeps the spirit incarcerated in the physical body, and so set the ...
— The Sorcery Club • Elliott O'Donnell
... specification, and absolutely perfect. He is called into this room for the purpose of comparing engines that have been strained from being thrown off the track, or run against other bodies with such force as to bend journals, pipes, break or loosen bolts; or otherwise deranged, so as to render it useless until repaired. To repair signifies to readjust from the abnormal condition in which the machinist finds it, to the condition of the normal engines which stand in the shop of repairs. His inspection would commence by first lining ...
— Philosophy of Osteopathy • Andrew T. Still
... battled with the demon fever which was gnawing at the vitals of her beloved George. At intervals her care seemed to get the better of the disorder, and to cause it to loosen its grip. But, alas! after twenty-four hours of unceasing toil and anxiety, poor devoted Agnes was forced to endure the mental agony of seeing Harkness die. The last thing he did was to smile up in her yearning face, and try to thank her for ...
— Angel Agnes - The Heroine of the Yellow Fever Plague in Shreveport • Wesley Bradshaw
... the bookkeeper, kept a clear head during the confusion that followed. She despatched Nathan, the shipping clerk, for a doctor and directed her frightened employers to loosen the ...
— Abe and Mawruss - Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter • Montague Glass
... slate at her side and bent her head gravely in sign that she submitted. She motioned to Blanche to loosen Anne's dress, and then—kneeling on one knee—took Anne to support her while ...
— Man and Wife • Wilkie Collins
... and many had pass'd o'er my head, Since, in Love's first assault, was dealt my wound, And from my brow its youthful air had fled, While cold and cautious thoughts my heart around Had made it almost adamantine ground, To loosen which hard passion gave no rest: No sorrow yet with tears had bathed my breast, Nor broke my sleep: and what was not in mine A miracle to me in others seem'd. Life's sure test death is deem'd, As cloudless eve best proves the ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch
... the man on the pillows. He still smiled at her, in a kind of triumph; also silent, but his lips trembled. Then, groping, she put out her hand—her disfigured, toil-worn hand—and took his, raising it to her lips. The touch of his flesh seemed to loosen in her the fountains of the great deep. She slid to her knees and kissed him—enfolding him with her arms, the two ...
— The Case of Richard Meynell • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... well dried with talcum powder. The feet and hands should be kept warm, but the little head should always be kept cool. When the baby is crying and getting his daily exercise, remove some of the covering, loosen his diaper, and let him kick and wave his ...
— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler
... the bow of the boat, his efforts greatly impeded by the big cork life-preserver tied under his arms, and the motion of the boat was so violent and erratic that he was obliged to hold on to the mast with one arm and to try to loosen the knot with the other; but there was a great strain on the rope, and he could ...
— The Best American Humorous Short Stories • Various
... punctilious, the conservative, the static; London, the God-fearing, the episcopal, the nice, the careful, the scrupulous, the aloof, the decorous, the proper, the dignified—who would have thought that London would loosen up and relax and partake of the potions of ...
— Europe After 8:15 • H. L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan and Willard Huntington Wright
... perspiration instead. "Oh, this is hustling a man!" he ingeminated, staring round the empty attic like a rabbit seeking a convenient hole. "Not three weeks buried!" he added, with another groan, and began to loosen his neck-cloth. ...
— Wandering Heath • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... hoped and expected that an attack on Grant's rear would be made in such force as to loosen his grip, and to enable the besieged to rise against the besiegers and break through. The Confederates, however, had not sufficient forces for such an enterprise. General Lee, in the East, had now undertaken the ...
— Notable Events of the Nineteenth Century - Great Deeds of Men and Nations and the Progress of the World • Various
... him loose now, Tim; but if he takes to turning somersets, catch him, loosen his collar, take off his boots, and throw him into the river," was the colonel's ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1885 • Various
... already felt. I did not understand then, though I have since comprehended it, that I was like some great tree, rooted in the ground, which could not be dragged from the earth in which it was buried until it had received some sudden blow to loosen its hold and make its grip ...
— Strange Visitors • Henry J. Horn
... off his mind, he sat silent, unresponsive to the openings I tried to make for a beginning. Not till I had exhausted small talk of current events and asked after his family in particular instead of his ancestors in general, did his tongue loosen. ...
— The House of the Misty Star - A Romance of Youth and Hope and Love in Old Japan • Fannie Caldwell Macaulay
... been definitely determined, so far as I am aware. I know I shall find some satisfaction over there at work, and I am convinced that satisfaction and happiness are kinsfolk. Possibly my potatoes will prove the answer to some mother's prayer for food for her little ones next winter. Who knows? As I loosen the soil about the vines I can look down the vista of the months, and see some little one in his high chair smiling through his tears as mother prepares one of my beautiful potatoes for him, and I think I can detect some moisture in mother's ...
— Reveries of a Schoolmaster • Francis B. Pearson
... the gastric juice is to help change part of the food into a more watery fluid. To do this it must be well mixed with the food. This mixing is done by the muscles in the outer wall of the stomach (Fig. 29). They squeeze together and then loosen up in such a way as to move the food about and turn it over until every particle is wet again and again with ...
— Health Lessons - Book 1 • Alvin Davison
... the rose Lies buried in her fragrance, when on earth The summer-loosen'd blossom flows, Art sepulchred and embalm'd in native worth: While to thy grave, in England's anxious years, We bring our ...
— The Visions of England - Lyrics on leading men and events in English History • Francis T. Palgrave
... could lift and toss and rock them in her strong, soft arms as if they were but flowers and she a summer wind; whose voice was music, and whose black hair was a great soft mantle 'twas their childish delight to coax her to loosen that it might flow about her, billowing, she standing laughing beneath and tossing it over them to hide their smallness under it as beneath a veil. She was their heroine and their young pride, and among themselves they made joyful little boasts that there was no ...
— His Grace of Osmonde • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... wife or duchess, if she will but loosen her pursestrings, it will be all the same; but she positively answered that she was tired of the exigencies and infidelities of Monsieur Porthos, and that she would not ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... his hand on his friend's forehead, "Jim, my dear boy," he said gravely, "this heat has been too much for you. Sit there quietly, while I get some ice. Here, let me loosen your collar," and he put his fingers ...
— The Militants - Stories of Some Parsons, Soldiers, and Other Fighters in the World • Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews
... already thought it expedient to gradually loosen and drop the links of their acquaintance with Captain Alec Osborn did not find, on his return to his duties in India, that the leave of absence spent in England among his relatives had improved him. He was plainly consuming ...
— Emily Fox-Seton - Being The Making of a Marchioness and The Methods of Lady Walderhurst • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... King of armies! Grant us room in Thy broad world! Loosen all the despot's fetters, Back be all his legions hurled! Give us peace and liberty, Let the land we love be free— Then, oh! bright and stainless banner! Never ...
— War Poetry of the South • Various
... is," agreed the cow. "You see if the stone wasn't under water I could see to loosen it with my horn, but as it is I can't, and I've tried several times," and she tried once more, just to show she ...
— Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble • Howard R. Garis
... began the work of unloading our craft, while Jack, seeing that the poor donkey was still encumbered with his swimming belt, tried to free him from it. But the donkey would not stand quiet, and the child's fingers were not strong enough to loosen the cordage; finally, therefore, he scrambled upon the animal's back, and urging him on with hand and foot, trotted ...
— Journeys Through Bookland V3 • Charles H. Sylvester
... tout spat contemptuously. "Do you know what that piker wanted to bet? Six dollars, across the board! I made him loosen up for fifteen, and he ...
— Old Man Curry - Race Track Stories • Charles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan
... as he sprung from the floor, "take the bar while I move a stone from the side with the crow. We won't take it right out, lest the jailer should notice it if he comes with the breakfast; but we'll loosen it so that we can remove it quickly when necessary, as the window is too narrow ...
— Journeys Through Bookland - Volume Four • Charles H. Sylvester |
