"Sliver" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... inventions for use as stop-motions in and about the various machines in the cotton mill has been to a certain extent something like the search after perpetual motion. Very available and quite satisfactory stop-motions have for a number of years been employed wherever the thread or sliver has been twisted so that strength was given it to resist a slight amount of friction, but the main trouble in the mill has been done after the sliver leaves the railway head and during its transit in the various processes employed between the railway ...
— Scientific American Suppl. No. 299 • Various
... ugliest, most suggestive weapons I have ever seen—long sliver-thin blades sharper than razors. The Arabs knelt on our chests (their knees were harder and more merciless than wooden clubs) and laid the blades, edge-upward, on the skin ...
— The Ivory Trail • Talbot Mundy
... moon or seasons of the year, or from some spot where the sun was supposed not to have shone on it.[1] Hence Shakespeare makes one of his witches speak of "root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark," and of "slips of yew sliver'd in the moon's eclipse," a practice which was long kept up. The plants, too, which formed the witches' pharmacopoeia, were generally selected either from their legendary associations or by reason of their poisonous ...
— The Folk-lore of Plants • T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
... before dark their efforts were rewarded; one of the men found it, and such a scramble occurred for even the smallest nibble at it! Enormous prices were given for a single chew. It opened at one dollar for a mere sliver, rose to five, and closed at ten dollars when the ...
— The Old Santa Fe Trail - The Story of a Great Highway • Henry Inman
... to effect this division we had to have some sort of scales. I went up to the single store to see what I could do. The storekeeper was a drawling, slow, down-east Yankee, perpetually chewing a long sliver or straw, talking exclusively through his nose, keen for a bargain, grasping of the last cent in a trade, and yet singularly interesting and agreeable. His sense of dry humour had a good deal to do with this. He had no gold scales to lend or to hire, but he had some to sell. ...
— Gold • Stewart White
... know what "sliver" meant, but the gleam of the skipper's cold eye was enough for him. He paid up ...
— Stories by English Authors: The Sea • Various
... yacht lay directly over an old wreck, which was so overgrown that it seemed little more than a huge rock. One of the men had brought up a sliver of wood in proof of the story, however, and at sight of it Jerry ...
— The Pirate Shark • Elliott Whitney
... have been, and then cut off so close up and down as not to project beyond the bulge of the log, as if the logs clasped each other in their arms. These logs were posts, studs, boards, clapboards, laths, plaster, and nails, all in one. Where the citizen uses a mere sliver or board, the pioneer uses the whole trunk of a tree. The house had large stone chimneys, and was roofed with spruce-bark. The windows were imported, all but the casings. One end was a regular logger's camp, for the boarders, with the usual fir floor and log benches. Thus ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 2, Number 9, July, 1858 • Various
... or three days later, Dr. Busey was summoned to "Greenwood," where he found Dr. Snyder dying from just such an accident. The branch of the tree he had been sawing off was hanging by a splintered sliver, too weak to support its weight and, in swinging to the ground, had knocked away the ladder on ...
— A Portrait of Old George Town • Grace Dunlop Ecker
... him, 'the butler was not going up the stairs, but was coming down. When he fell headlong he must have made a fearful clatter. Shuffling along with his burden, his slipper was impaled by this sliver, and the butler's hands being full, he could not save himself, but went head foremost down the stair. The startling point, however, is the fact that he was not carrying my lord's breakfast to him, or taking it away from him, ...
— The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont • Robert Barr
... on high But the moon, and the stars, and the cloudless sky, And the flood which rolls its milky hue, A river of light on the welkin blue. The moon looks down on old Cronest, She mellows the shades on his shaggy breast, And seems his huge gray form to throw In a sliver cone on the wave below; His sides are broken by spots of shade, By the walnut bough and the cedar made, And through their clustering branches dark Glimmers and dies the fire-fly's spark— Like starry twinkles that momently break Through the rifts ...
— The Culprit Fay - and Other Poems • Joseph Rodman Drake
... on hands and knees, but without result, and finally, in sheer desperation, struck my last match. The tiny flare was sufficient to reveal the entire floor space as well as the wall, but there was no remnant of candle visible. I held the sliver of wood, until the flame scorched my fingers, staring about in bewilderment. Then the intense darkness shut ...
— Gordon Craig - Soldier of Fortune • Randall Parrish
... of its sides might have reason to complain at not receiving its share of the heat. The lower end roasted first, seeing which, George took the goose off, reversed it and set it twirling again. After a time he sharpened a sliver of wood, stuck it into the goose and examined the ...
— The Lure of the Labrador Wild • Dillon Wallace
... saloon and swept down the street, first a dusty figure on a dusty horse, hardly visible; then a spot of red which must be Harry Fisher on his blood-bay, with a long-striding sorrel beside him that could carry no one except grim old Sliver Waldron. Behind these rode one with the light glinting on his silver conchos—Mat Henshaw, the town Beau Brummel—then the black Guss Reeve, and last of all "Ronicky" Joe on his pinto; "Ronicky" Joe, handy man at all things, and particularly guns. It showed how fast Pete Glass could work and ...
— The Seventh Man • Max Brand
... of darkness Punctured by needle lights Through a fissure of brick canyon shutting out stars, And a sliver of moon Spigoting two high windows over the ...
— Sun-Up and Other Poems • Lola Ridge
... for a stick she had picked up from among those left after the building of the hut. Before departing she had insisted that the man leave a note for Tarzan thanking him for his care of them and bidding him goodbye. This they left pinned to the inside wall of the hut with a little sliver ...
— Tarzan the Untamed • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... to set in. There were occasional ventures to a corner bake-shop for raisin rolls and to the delicatessen next door for a quarter-pound of Bologna sausage sliced into slivers while she waited. She would sit on the cot-edge munching alternately from sliver to roll, gulping through a throat that was continually tight with wanting to cry, yet would not ...
— Humoresque - A Laugh On Life With A Tear Behind It • Fannie Hurst
... clouds and white wind, Eunice awaited Gervase by the river. The Dartle splashed among the reeds and whined Over the willow-roots, and a long sliver Of caked and slobbered foam crept up the bank. All through the garden, drifts of skirling leaves Blew up, and settled down, and blew again. The cherry-trees were weaves Of empty, knotted branches, and a dank Mist hid the house, mouldy it smelt and rank With sodden wood, and ...
— Men, Women and Ghosts • Amy Lowell
... there was a sliver of flame, a sharp crack at which the three steeds of the trio of youthful cowboys jumped slightly, and there writhed on the trail a venomous rattle-snake, its head now a shapeless mass where the bullet from Bud's gun ...
— The Boy Ranchers Among the Indians - or, Trailing the Yaquis • Willard F. Baker
... railroad tie (or sleeper) had for him a personality: the fat, white tie, which oozed at the end into an awkward knob, he had always hated because it resembled a flattened grub; a new tamarack tie with a sliver of fresh bark still on it, recently put in by the section gang, was an entertaining stranger; and he particularly introduced Gertie to his favorite, a wine-colored ...
— The Trail of the Hawk - A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life • Sinclair Lewis
... wood, elm or birch. It should be about three or more feet in length, and as large as a man's thumb at the butt end. By bending it in the shape of the letter U it may easily be inserted in the skin, the latter being [Page 275] fastened by catching the lip on each side into a sliver notch cut on each end of the ...
— Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making • William Hamilton Gibson
... and then, as he was about to reply, there came the sudden sound of a shot, which shattered the night with a sliver of flame, plainly visible ...
— The Boy Ranchers in Camp - or The Water Fight at Diamond X • Willard F. Baker
... Airily she tripped along, her light plaid silk gleaming through the deep green of the trees and revealing her coming to the tired man sitting upon a little rustic seat, beneath a chestnut tree, where he once had sat with Katy, and extracted a cruel sliver from her hand, kissing the place to make it well as she told him to. She was a child then, a little girl of twelve, and he was twenty, but the sight of her pure face lifted confidingly to his had stirred his heart ...
— Family Pride - Or, Purified by Suffering • Mary J. Holmes
... against his knee to fire. He saw the dart quiver in the upper arm of the beast, and it halted to pull out that sliver of dangerously poisoned metal, crumpled it into a tight twist. Vye continued to fire, never sure of his aim, but seeing those slivers go home in thick legs, in outstretched forelimbs, in wide, pendulous bellies. Then there were three blue shapes ...
— Star Hunter • Andre Alice Norton
... up against a sliver of wood, and got a splinter in your hand," he declared; "see here, I can show you," saying which he used the nails of his finger and thumb for a forceps, and drew out a little splinter that had pushed under the skin, ...
— The Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods - The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol • Herbert Carter
... to pick away a sliver of salmon lodged between his teeth, and the men and women, with idle hands and heads craned ...
— Brown Wolf and Other Jack London Stories - Chosen and Edited By Franklin K. Mathiews • Jack London
... There was a sliver of flame in the darkness, and mingled with the report came a cry of anguish and a woman's scream, as a heavy stick in the hands of Colonel Ashley broke the hand that ...
— The Diamond Cross Mystery - Being a Somewhat Different Detective Story • Chester K. Steele
... sliver with his fingers and jerked it out, examined the tiny incision and then thrust the wounded member into his mouth. "Don't ever tell any of my patients that you saw me do this," he laughed, with a return to good ...
— 'Smiles' - A Rose of the Cumberlands • Eliot H. Robinson
... up his reins, and away the wagons clattered down the long hill, and with a short, thunder-like rumble crossed the bridge between the Sliver Place and Appledale. Perhaps the writer may be called to account for this romantic name: he will therefore give it here. Appledale was once called Snag-Orchard, on account of the old trees whose fugitive roots often found their ...
— Be Courteous • Mrs. M. H. Maxwell
... growing steeper. Still he went on and down. He caught at any unevenness in the rock he could lay hand upon, lowering himself to the length of his arm, groping for handhold and foothold everywhere. Then a handhold to which he had entrusted his weight betrayed him, the tiny sliver of stone scaled off and he began to slip. He clutched wildly but his body gained fresh momentum. He heard Betty shriek above him. He had a vision of himself plunging down the cliffs. Then he knew that he had struck the bushes, ...
— Daughter of the Sun - A Tale of Adventure • Jackson Gregory
... cautiously down a steep switchback. The horse had stopped and was trembling. Bailey glanced back. "Up there!" he whispered, gesturing to the trail above them. Pete had also been looking round, and before Bailey could speak again, a sliver of flame split the darkness and the roar of Pete's six-gun shattered the eerie silence of the hillside. Bailey's horse plunged off the trail and rocketed straight down the mountain. Pete's horse, rearing from the hurtling shape that lunged from the trail ...
— The Ridin' Kid from Powder River • Henry Herbert Knibbs
... out any blemish, and put them on to cook in cold water over the fire. They are much better boiled while wearing their jackets. Allow from one-half to three-quarters of an hour for boiling, test them with a sliver of wood that will pierce through the centre when the potato is done. When cooked pour off the boiling water, set off the fire to one side where they will keep hot, and raise one edge of the lid to allow the steam to escape. Serve while ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard
... the scorched wrappings of leaves, it gave forth a scent so savoury as to prick up Jerry's ears and set his nostrils to quivering. When the boy had torn the steaming carcass across and cooled it, Jerry's meal began; nor did the meal cease till the last sliver of meat had been stripped and tongued from the bones and the bones crunched and crackled to fragments and swallowed. And throughout the meal Lamai made love to Jerry, crooning over and over his little song, and patting and ...
— Jerry of the Islands • Jack London
... a Willow grows aslant a brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke. ...
— The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare • Henry Nicholson Ellacombe
... The meadow suddenly had become very quiet. A tree, sap-bursting, cracked resoundingly; the sound went through her like a sliver. She stood there, poised as if for flight, feeling upon her from every tree, rock and bush, the hostile eyes of peering things; and she was mighty glad when Nicodemus came running to her resonantly across the clearing, demanding ...
— The Trimming of Goosie • James Hopper
... of illustrating capillary water is to tie or hold together two flat pieces of glass, keeping two of the edges close together and separating the opposite two about one-eighth of an inch with a sliver of wood. Then set them in a plate of water or colored liquid and notice how the water rises between the pieces of glass, rising higher the smaller the space (Fig. 27). It is the capillary force which causes water to rise in a piece of cloth ...
— The First Book of Farming • Charles L. Goodrich
... like the subtle spell The sliver moonlight weaves; And what so sad and what so glad ...
— Love or Fame; and Other Poems • Fannie Isabelle Sherrick
... had to wear, sir," was the rueful answer, as, rising, he took the garment from the arm of his chair and laid it upon the table, with the yellow lining of the cape thrown back, exposing a rent or gash, whereupon Captain Sumter arose, took from an envelope a sliver of yellow cloth, and fitted it into the gap. "This," said he, "I found on the hook of the storm-sash, and this," he continued, laying beside it a rusty sheath knife, "was later found under the snow, close ...
— Lanier of the Cavalry - or, A Week's Arrest • Charles King
... to get to New York in time to deliver the letter before the San Salvador sailed. When the girls awoke very early and saw a sliver of moon shining low in the sky, they bounced up with glad if muffled cries, believing that everything was all right. The storm had ceased. And when they pushed up the window a little more to stick their heads out ...
— Betty Gordon at Mountain Camp • Alice B. Emerson
... ships than you'll find in most married lives!" Then he would wave an arm up Oakland Estuary, which prior to the great war was the graveyard of Pacific Coast shipping, and say with great pride: "Well, we've done a good job on this craft, boys; she'll never end in Rotten Row! Every sliver in her is air-dried and seasoned. That's the stuff! Build 'em of unseasoned material and dry rot develops the first year; in five years they're punk inside, and then—some fine day they're posted as missing at Lloyd's. Did you ...
— Cappy Ricks Retires • Peter B. Kyne
... according to the countries from which it has come. It is then "passed through the willow, the scuthing machine, and the spreading machine, in order to be opened, cleaned, and evenly spread. By the carding engine the fibres are combed out, and laid parallel to each other, and the fleece is compressed into sliver. The sliver is repeatedly drawn and doubled in the drawing frame, more perfectly to strengthen the fibres and to equalize the grist. The roving frame, by rollers and spindles, produces a coarse loose thread, which the mule or throstle spins into yarn. To make the ...
— Rides on Railways • Samuel Sidney
... a sliver in the door bore the entry in lead- pencil, "Gone Duck Shooting to Plover Slough," for it was the custom of the twins to faithfully chronicle the cause of their absence and their probable location each time they left ...
— The Black Creek Stopping-House • Nellie McClung
... during such a year, it seems certain that scores more of chickadee babies manage to live to grow up than is usually the case. These little fluffs are, in their way, as remarkable acrobats as are the nuthatches, and it is a marvel how the very thin legs, with their tiny sliver of bone and thread of tendon, can hold the body of the bird in almost any position, while the vainly hidden clusters of insect eggs are pried into. Without ceasing a moment in their busy search for food, the fluffy feathered members of the flock call to each other, "Chick-a-chick-a-dee-dee!" ...
— The Log of the Sun - A Chronicle of Nature's Year • William Beebe
... form, spitting viciously into his face, with taunting words, seeking through every form of ferocious ingenuity to wring from their helpless victim some sign of suffering, some shrieking plea for mercy. Once I marked a red devil stick a sharpened sliver of wood into the Frenchman's bare shoulder, touched it with fire, and then stand back laughing as the bound victim sought vainly to ...
— When Wilderness Was King - A Tale of the Illinois Country • Randall Parrish
... marooning on the narrow island of ice surrounded by fathomless crevasses, with a knife-edged sliver curving deeply "like the cable of a suspension bridge" diagonally across it as the only means of escape, I shuddered at his peril. I held my breath as he told of the terrible risks he ran as he cut his steps down the wall of ice to the bridge's end, knocked off the sharp edge of the sliver, ...
— Alaska Days with John Muir • Samual Hall Young
... who was standing not far away, got hit with a little sliver and had a hole punched in the shoulder of his overcoat. It stopped there, however, and did not hurt him in the least. He looked rather astonished, pulled the little stranger from the hole it had made, looked at it quizzically, and then put it in his ...
— A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium • Hugh Gibson
... told him that it was dark when Drake had packed him off, so that no letter could be sent, "but yet with the point of his knife, he wrote something upon the toothpick, 'which,' he said, 'should be sufficient to gain credit to the messenger.'" Looking closely at the sliver of gold, Hixom saw a sentence scratched upon it: "By me, Francis Drake," which convinced him that the message was genuine. He at once called away one of the pinnaces, storing her with "what provision he could," and promptly set sail for the mouth of the Tortugos River, a few miles along ...
— On the Spanish Main - Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. • John Masefield
... prior to placing the scion, the bark of the stock is slit, two cuts with the point of the knife, approximate width of the scion and down along the bark to the length the scion is to be inserted, then the scion is placed. The next step is to cut off the little sliver of bark which is pushed out, at the point where it does not contact the scion. In this tree, two scions were placed, the scions being wrapped tightly with waxed muslin which was prepared beforehand, using ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting • Various
... It was a good night for my purpose, dark and shadowless, with a mere sliver of a new moon in the sky. I had little difficulty in gaining ...
— The Blood Ship • Norman Springer
... a very small hole C, into which the lower end of the Beard is to be fix'd, the upper end of which Beard ab, is to pass through a small hole of a Plate, or top AA, if you make use onely of a single one, and on the top of it e, is to be fix'd a small and very light Index fg, made of a very thin sliver of a Reed or Cane; but if you make use of two or more Beards, they must be fix'd and bound together, either with a very fine piece of Silk, or with a very small touch of hard Wax, or Glew, which ...
— Micrographia • Robert Hooke |
